HUNT FOR THE HUNTER

Veerappan-slayer recalls hunt for 'wild animal with human brain'

"What if we had not got him? He would have died in hiding deep in the dense forest. Time would have marked our mission as a failed one," began K Vijay Kumar, the head of the Special Task Force (STF), who deftly lured forest brigand Veerappan out of the forest and eliminated him in an encounter in 2004.

The STFs of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu had been searching the Malai Mahadeshwara Hills (MM Hills) for Veerappan for two decades.

Vijay Kumar took over the charge of Tamil Nadu STF in 2001 and changed strategy. STF members infiltrated Veerappan's gang. For the first time, Veerappan made the decision to travel outside the forests.

It was the strategic moves by Vijay Kumar that culminated in nabbing Veerappan. He was part of the Special Protection Group of the Prime Minister. He was credited with raising a Special Security Group for the protection of the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu as well.

He had played a pivotal role in containing caste violence in Madurai in 1997. He was part of the Border Security Force (BSF) in the Kargil and Fidayeen attacks.

As commissioner of police, Chennai city, he neutralised some of the most notorious criminals. He was also the advisor to governors of Jharkhand and Jammu & Kashmir and also the senior security advisor in the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, on left-wing extremism and J&K affairs.

He authored the best-selling title, Veerappan — Chasing the Brigand, on the life, rise, and fall, the chase and killing of Veerappan.

So how did the STF infiltrate Veerappan's gang? How did he prepare the STF? Where did Veerappan go wrong? Vijay Kumar spoke to Manorama Online Premium in an exclusive interview.

Edited excerpts:

The STF captured Veerappan, who had been hiding in dense forests for several decades. Several secessionist activities, centered on forests, are taking place in several parts of the country. It is one of the major challenges the country has been facing. What were the takeaways from the hunt for Veerappan that the police could replicate elsewhere?

Operations in any jungle call for Secrecy, Silence, Subtlety, and Stealth, the 4 S-es. Each of these words has its own nuances. The ideal man operating in the jungle is the one who does not disturb the 3Bs: Bees, Birds, and Beasts. The wildlife should not feel that we are intruders. We should blend with the jungle, and co-exist with the wild.

Policemen are normally trained to be noisy. They interfere in issues and are trained to give commands. It is part of their job, irrespective of whether it is a traffic policeman or any other policeman, he is noisy by habit.

To operate in the jungle, he should undergo a major transformation. He should drastically change his mode of operation. Such a change is possible only through extreme discipline and rigid training.

"I need only these 200 men," Walter Devaram had said.

The STF personnel of both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are humble, austere, and voluntary. That is the main virtue of these forces. Walter Devaram accepted the first 200 out of the 65,000-strong police force who had volunteered to join when the force was formed.

He said he needed only those 200, who came forward of their own volition, and not the brilliant boys who would think about joining the STF and decide tomorrow. A jungle force should be a voluntary one, not one that is dictated by government orders. They should be willing to work in bare-bone, extremely difficult conditions, minus three-star luxury. My previous experience and training with the BSF helped me later in dealing with left-wing extremism.

No comparison: Veerappan and Maoists

The hunt for Veerappan and ultra lefts cannot be compared. But for some similarities, they are entirely different. Both are renegades, fugitives. Both had a chain of couriers and informers in villages. Both employ guerrilla warfare. But the Maoists had a deeper cause. They had a different ideology. Veerappan didn't have any specific ideology. He was illiterate. Maoists propagate ideology through books.

In 1996, there was a change of government. J Jayalalithaa, who was going hammer and tongs after him, lost the elections. Veerappan thought he would get a softer deal when the DMK came to power. It was then that he started entertaining radical groups like the Tamil Nadu Liberation Front.

You cannot compare him with Maoists, who had a deep-rooted ideology and wanted to uproot the government. He was also a renegade, a fugitive. The comparison stops there. However, at different points in time, he had tried to establish links with the LTTE and the People's War Group. Some tapes revealed his attempts to establish contact with them.

MM Hills did not see another gang after Veerappan. Did the band of forest brigands, too, was eliminated along with him? Veerappan did not have a successor.

Veerappan eliminated all his competitors. He did not have a succession plan like big leaders who groom a second line. Normally, the mafia and gang of robbers have a consigliere or underboss, the second in command. The underboss will be more important and powerful. But the don will be the visible one, who creates an image.

The consigliere will be the brain behind the operations. Veerappan did not have one but for his last five-six years, when Sethukuli Govindan, who also died with him, started dictating.

Govindan was physically stronger, wilier, and 10 years younger. Veerappan started listening to his cousin Govindan. The latter should have been the leader, but Veerappan had the advantage of time. By the time STF was formed, Veerappan had already become the don. He had by then started causing much damage to the forest department. Govindan had superior intelligence and physical power than Veerappan but was overshadowed by the latter's image. Some vernacular media also inflated Veerappan's image.

There are, of late, efforts to project Veerappan as the Indian Robin Hood. How far is this correct?

He was no Robin Hood but in bits and parts. Veerappan had done some good for the public once in a while, like helping someone to repair their motor (water pump) or giving tips. Unlike Robin Hood, Veerappan was vengeful.

There was a village where people worshipped Lord Shiva, and every second person there was a Jadayan — a man with long, matted hair — like the god. Jadayan was a common name in that village. One of the Jadayans became friendly with the police officers. Veerappan suspected that the Jadayan was passing on intelligence to the police. He wanted to punish Jadayan and went to the village.

On not finding the Jadayan, he butchered five people, men and women, and left the bodies in front of the village temple in October 1994. The villagers closed the temple and it was reopened 10 years later only after Veerappan's death as the residents were so angry.

Veerappan was an avenger. When a person, who metes out such cruel punishment, does one or two kind acts, they are blown out of proportion. It is natural when a cruel man suddenly becomes kind.

Interestingly, he was responsible for making the Karnataka government close all stone quarries, famous for their black and red marble blocks, in the MM Hills and Kollegal areas. Veerappan used to extort the quarry owners and take away explosives, which he used against the police, forcing the government to issue the closure order. The closure affected the people of Nallur and other villages. Veerappan blamed the government for the loss of their livelihood. So I won't say he was like Robin Hood.

Veerappan was eliminated after having a free run for several decades. How did you accomplish the mission? What was the master plan that snared him?

There were no distractions. We had only one focus and that was to capture Veerappan. All of us worked as a single unit and took up difficult missions. We monitored Veerappan's movements and formulated counter-strategies.

Senthamarakkanan, who was my number two in the force, was a short, unassuming person, very intelligent and adept at gathering information. He deftly gleaned information from Veerappan's aides lodged in Chennai, Salem, and Erode prisons, and conduits.

Once we got the information that Veerappan wanted to meet his youngest daughter. A family in Hosur had adopted the child. Officer Ramalingam convinced the adopted parents and handed her over to Muthulakshmi (Veerappan's wife). In fact, Muthulakshmi should be grateful to the Tamil Nadu police for getting her child back.

Later, we made clandestine arrangements to allow Veerappan to meet the child at a guest house near Ooty (Kotagiri). Everyone, from the cook at the guest house to the firewood collectors nearby were all STF members. Veerappan came as close as 20 km, but somehow smelt a rat, and returned.

Veerappan had an instinct that alerted him of dangers. We spread out in different teams, without contacting each other, and in disguise. It was dangerous because the STF personnel themselves might mistake each other for someone else and open fire. ADSP Hussain narrowly escaped being shot by the Karnataka STF once. He was lying in wait for Veerappan's gang near the Moyar River in Ooty when the Karnataka STF mistook him for a member of Veerappan's gang.

Veerappan was trapped after being in hiding for several years. His movements till then were well-planned. What were the strategic mistakes he had made?

The strategic failure led to his fall. Veerappan was from Gopinatham (a village in Karnataka, bordering Tamil Nadu). His turf was the nearby majestic Malai Mahadeshwara and Mylamala Hills. He had the backing of 30 villages.

He fled MM Hills due to several reasons and crossed the River Cauvery to Tamil Nadu. This move snapped his supply and intelligence lines. He decided to venture out into unfamiliar terrains for medical treatment. He also tried to procure firearms. We had intelligence about his moves and planned accordingly.

What we know about Veerappan are stories, mostly inflated, and narrated by those with no first-hand experience. Who was Veerappan according to you? What were his unique abilities?

He was a wild animal with human intelligence. He was a man of planning, scheming, vile, and tactical in approach. He was born into the forest and was a natural hunter. A hunter will be adept in setting up an ambush because he has to get to the animal before the beast knows his presence.

The animal instinct is much more superior to that of humans. The hunter's ability is to capture the animal before it senses the man's presence. There are two groups in the animal world: the hunter and the hunted. Both have the ability to recognise their enemy. A deer will sense the enemy's presence even while foraging. Veerappan was a child-hunter, and he had that extra sense.

Elephants move their trunks to get the man's scent wafting through the wind. Veerappan knew to approach the elephant without compromising his location. Even as a child, he used to move against the wind to get close to the elephant and gun it down. His abilities grew with him. I can tell with certainty that he was the king of strategies.

He was a 'negative' child prodigy. He started hunting at a younger age. He was a member of a gang of hunters led by Savy Gounder. He was the only junior in a gang of veterans. He soon became an integral part of the gang.

How did you trap such a strategist? What were the strategies you brought in to trap Veerappan?

I am not a strategist. I am just a policeman with practical knowledge. I had been with the Special Protection Group in charge of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's security. Since I was with the SPG, I had the opportunity to interact with and get trained by the best police forces, including Russian and European, in the world.

I don't claim that I employed what I had learnt from them, but they helped in strategising. The learnings had helped in making some major changes in the functioning of the STF no doubt. I ensured that there were no differences among the SFT personnel but encouraged healthy competition.

The STF worked in silos. The boys were provided quality training in shooting, strategic movement, and jungle survival tactics. The force was made into a professional one.

I had only streamlined the strategies of my predecessors. Walter Devaram had laid a strong foundation. The STF was a team of dedicated people.

My predecessors had promised rewards for informers. I cleared their dues and made information gathering more efficient. DIG Tamilselvan personally visited the villages and distributed the money. We cleared the dues that had been pending for five years. It was done clandestinely. This boosted the confidence of the villagers. There were complaints against the STF but we focused only on getting Veerappan.

The villagers had an organisation called the Hillmen's Association. It had several complaints against the functioning of the STF. A team under SP Chinnaswamy held talks with the association's leaders and lawyers, and found an amicable solution — and we won their support.

Why didn't the earlier STFs capture Veerappan?

My work was the continuation of the previous STFs. I was standing on the shoulder of what they had built. The STFs of Walter Devaram and Shankar M Bidari (he later retired as DGP, Karnataka) shadowed Veerappan's gang for long. They reduced the number of his gang members to a single digit.

In fact, the previous STFs decimated Veerappan's gang of 157 or 160 people, including both men and women. When I took charge, Veerappan had only four or five people with him. It is not wrong to say Veerappan's peak was over when I took charge. His strength, too, had drastically waned. But he was wily enough to hide.

The chances of capturing Veerappan in hiding were bleak. If not captured, the possibility of him dying of natural causes was huge. It would have been embarrassing for the police if he was not captured.

Meanwhile, news spread that Veerappan had died. A human skeleton that matched Veerappan's height, too, was found in the forest, which added to the rumour. It later turned out to be a man Veerappan killed over an allegation that he had misbehaved with a woman. By eliminating him — one who was in the periphery of the gang — Veerappan gave the message that indiscipline would not be tolerated.

It is said that cats have nine lives. Veerappan was like a cat. He had spent eight lives when we confronted him. We would have never succeeded if we had tried to comb the forest for him. He was like a crocodile in the water. It was this realisation that made us try to bring him out of the forest. Otherwise, the mission would have dragged on for four or five more years.

The STF was a team of dedicated officers. Did you enjoy being a part of it? You even left the STF briefly. What made you step out of five-star facilities?

I was appointed to the STF in 2001 but Chief Minister Jayalalithaa pulled me back after six months and appointed me as the commissioner of Chennai city police. I was reluctant to join as the commissioner. Jayalalithaa reappointed me in the STF in 2003.

My family supported me. My wife Meena had even stayed in Sathyamangalam, where the base camp was located. I then had eight more years of service left. She used to tell me that I should complete the mission even if it took eight years. That was the truth.  

Several movies and documentaries on the life of Veerappan and the STF's hunt for him are being made. The latest was a docuseries released on an OTT platform. The details of the hunt for Veerappan have always been debated. Did you watch the docuseries? What is your view?

Yes, I have watched it. It has maintained high technical qualities. I congratulate the makers and others behind the series. But I am disappointed with certain aspects. 

It has no mention of the exemplary moves of Walter Devaram, the chief of the joint STF. Shankar M Bidari, who headed the Karnataka STF, too, did not get the space he deserved. There were certain negative remarks about Bidari in the series. 

Shankar Bidari was one officer who had vowed not to accept any awards for exemplary service until he captured Veerappan. It was a principled stand. He would have eliminated Veerappan's gang. He led the STF with such intelligence and deft moves. 

The present Commissioner of Delhi Police, Sanjay Arora, too, did not get the deserved mention. He was the youngest IPS officer who volunteered to join the STF. I know a four-part series could not cover all the details. 

Superintendent of Police Tamilselvan lost three of his fingers in an encounter. The series should have mentioned the chivalrous and exemplary acts of such officers — at least a couple of sentences. This is the only complaint I have about the series.

Your interview was not included in the docuseries. Is there any specific reason for not granting the interview?

I have written a book, "Veerappan: Chasing the Brigand", and I have signed an agreement with a movie house (for a movie). This is why I decided against giving an interview for the series. But I did wish the best for the makers. They have come up with a balanced and justifiable series. 

Is there an attempt being made to glorify Veerappan in the movies and series? 

It is natural. Veerappan remained elusive in the forests for about 20 years. So, exaggerated stories about him are natural, and he gets a larger-than-life image. I am not surprised. Even Time magazine carried an article on Veerappan. He received such an exaggerated image.

(Originally published on August 22, 2023, this interview was revised and republished on August 28, 2023.)

This is the final part of a three-part series on the hunt for Veerappan.

Read Part 1: Revisiting life and death of forest brigand Veerappan almost two decades on

Part 2: Fatal mistakes that led to Veerappan's doom