INDIA: India's most notorious bandit, wanted for more than 120 murders, the killing of thousands of elephants for their ivory tusks and kidnapping, was ambushed and shot dead by police in southern Tamil Nadu state while on his way to hospital early yesterday, writes Rahul Bedi in New Delhi
Koose Muniswamy Veerappan (60), who was also responsible for cutting down entire forests of precious sandalwood trees, was killed in the ensuing firefight in the thick, dark jungles of Dharmapuri district, 180 miles south-east of the state capital, Madras.
Three of his associates also died in the ambush.
Police said Veerappan was being rushed in an ambulance from his mountain hideout to the plains for medical attention, when they asked him to surrender via hailers fitted to their jeeps.
"There was silence for about a minute, and then there was firing from the other side. We took cover, hurled stun grenades and returned the fire, killing Veerappan and his associates," Mr K. Vijay Kumar, head of the 750-member special task force set up to hunt down the bandit, said.
"We tracked him for several days before the final gun battle," added Mr Kumar, who fought Muslim insurgents for several years in Kashmir province.
Intelligence sources said one of Veerappan's associates had surrendered about three hours before the gun battle and led police to the bandit.
Veerappan's killing brings to a close the longest manhunt in Indian police history that cost more than 1.5 billion rupees (€26 million).
Veerappan, who had a 20-million-rupee bounty on his head, had been on the run since the late 1960s, when he fell in with ivory smugglers in the dense jungles of the adjoining states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
Forest officials said he had killed more than 2,000 elephants for ivory worth 150 million rupees and cut down sandalwood trees valued at more than one billion rupees.
In his trademark military fatigues, local villages were said to have looked upon him as a modern-day Robin Hood.
But this claim was rejected by hundreds of poor villagers who said Veerappan ruthlessly killed anyone who refused him or his gang members food and shelter. He also terrorised locals by hanging the bodies of suspected police informants from trees.
Veerappan eluded the police for nearly three decades, reportedly because of his strong political connections that prevented them from launching an all-out offensive to either capture or eliminate him.
He offered to surrender more than once, provided all charges against him were dropped and a film made on his life similar to Bandit Queen which portrayed the life of Phoolan Devi, a female bandit from the north who surrendered in the mid-1980s after brokering a deal with the government.
Devi who became an MP, was murdered by rival bandits outside her house in Delhi in 2001.