MADRAS, India, 21 October 2004 — Thousands of people turned out for the funeral yesterday of India’s most wanted bandit, whose killing in a police trap this week ended a decades-old run of bloodshed and crime.
“Bandit king” Koose Muniswamy Veerappan was killed on Monday in a 20-minute shootout in a forest in Tamil Nadu state, marking the final chapter in one of India’s longest-ever manhunts, officials said. He was buried by his distraught family in a 45-minute Hindu ceremony at a family burial ground at Moolakadu in Tamil Nadu.
“We have been orphaned,” wailed his wife Muthulakshi and teenage daughters Prabha and Vidya Rani, clinging to each other. Thousands of curious onlookers gathered to watch the funeral of the man known as the “Jungle Cat” for his ability to elude security forces. Veerappan’s brother Madheyan, serving a life sentence for taking part in one of the bandit’s raids against police, was freed for a day to perform the last rites for his slain brother.
Grisly close-up photographs of the dead man, accused of killing more than 100 people, were splashed across the front pages of Indian newspapers, some showing a bullet wound in his forehead. “An eye for many eyes,” read a banner headline in the widely read Asian Age. The photographs showed Veerappan, his once luxuriant trademark handlebar moustache neatly trimmed, stretched out on a mortuary slab. Security officials said he had likely cut his moustache to escape detection. In life, Veerappan, believed to be around 60, had often taunted security forces. Pictures of him sent to the media showed him striking macho poses in combat fatigues, his gun by his side. Most of his alleged victims were police and forestry workers, as well as villagers he suspected of being police informers. He was also accused of poaching hundreds of elephants for their tusks and illegally felling thousands of sandalwood trees.
But despite his bloodthirsty reputation, Veerappan enjoyed a Robin Hood cult status among many villagers whose livelihoods depended on elephant poaching and sandalwood smuggling. They had often helped the bandit, who inspired several Indian movie thrillers, flee security forces. But State Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa branded him a “menace to society”, saying the men who killed him had “done us proud”.
She announced promotions, rewards of 300,000 rupees ($6,382) and free housing plots for all 752 members of the Special Task Force involved in the hunt for him. Veerappan killed his first elephant in his early teens and had been on the run for decades. He was killed after undercover police managed to persuade his gang to take him for treatment at a rural hospital. After they set out in an ambulance, security forces surrounded him and three gang members and ordered them to surrender. The gangsters began to shoot and the security men opened fire, officials said.
His family has however demanded an investigation into the bandit’s slaying, alleging he was arrested earlier and then killed Monday. Special Task Force chief K. Vijay Kumar refused comment on the allegation. The bandit had told journalists in interviews in his jungle hide-outs that he had bribed politicians and police, and vowed to reveal full details if he was ever brought to trial. One of his victims, southern India’s most famous film star Rajkumar, said he was “relieved” at the bandit’s death.
