A court in Erode district of Tamil Nadu on Tuesday acquitted all the nine accused in the abduction of Kannada superstar Rajkumar by forest brigand Veerappan in 2000.
K Mani, judge of the Third Additional District Court in Gobichettipalayam in Erode district, came down on the prosecution for its failure in presenting a fool-proof case. Both Rajkumar and Veerappan breathed their last in 2006 and 2004, respectively. Veerapppan, who had terrorised south west Tamil Nadu was shot dead by the Special Task Force led by K Vijayakumar and constituted by the then Jayalalithaa Government.
Judge Mani crticised Rajkumar’s family for not coming forward to file a complaint against the people who abducted the Kannada actor. He said the prosecution failed to provide even an iota of evidence to prove that the accused were connected to Veerappan and his aide Sethukuzhi Govindan.
The Kannada film actor along with three of his associates were kidnapped by Veerappan from his farm house at Dhodda Gajanur Village in Talavadi on July 30, 2000. Rajkumar and his wife Parvathmma had gone to the farm house for a house warming ceremony when the incident occurred. While one of the victims escaped from Veerappan’s captivity in September 2000, the rest including the actor were released by the brigand after 108 days in November 2000. The interim period saw the then Karunanidhi Government in Tamil Nadu deputing the editor of a Tamil weekly as interlocutor. What transpired in the discussions with Veerappan that took place deep inside the reserve forests of Gobichettipalayam was never released.
It transpired that the abduction had to do something with the quarry business owned by the sons of the actor and the protection money they owed to Veerappan. The incident had become an international news as Tamil chauvinist organisations too pitched into the negotiations.
Some of the demands put forward by Veerappan, an illiterate, that the statue of Thiruvallur, the Tamil sage should be installed in Bangalore surprised the authorities.
Talavadi police had registered a case against 14 persons including Veerappan. The case was later transferred to Coimbatore CB-CID and was in trial against the nine accused before the Third Additional District Court Judge who examined 42 witnesses, 52 documents, 31 materials, including guns.