Veerappan Taint Haunts Hamlets

Villagers in the brigand’s erstwhile stronghold continue to be hounded on what they say are trumped-up charges. PC VINOJ KUMAR reports

THREE YEARS after he was killed in an alleged police encounter, brigand Veerappan’s misdeeds continue to shadow his former stomping grounds in west Tamil Nadu’s Bargur, Sathyamangalam and Mettur forest areas. More than a hundred people from these regions are facing trial on charges of having helped the man who for 20 years was one of India’s most sought-after fugitives, pursued for scores of murders and kidnappings, and for large-scale sandalwood and ivory smuggling. Many of those accused of having helped him stand charged under sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Arms Act and the Explosives Act; some had been charged under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) as well, but the government later withdrew those cases. While some cases are more than a decade old, many defendants have still not been given copies of the chargesheets.

As TEHELKA found, most of these people are impoverished daily wage earners who live in remote areas that are up to 150km away from the courts in Bhavani and in Karnataka’s Kollegal where they are being tried. Shuttling between their villages and the courts can cost anywhere between Rs 50 and Rs 200 per trip. Not only that, with hearings in each case taking place at least once a month, the undertrials are forced to suspend their livelihood each time they make a court appearance. Absence at any hearing could result in arrest, as happened with A. Ponnusamy in 2004. “I didn’t have the money to go to court that day. So I stayed back, not realising the consequences.” Arrested under TADA in 1993, he was in jail for nine months before he could get bail. In 2004, he was jailed for another eight months. “He had no one to guide him at the time” says A. Asokan, an advocate with People’s Watch, a rights NGO which is providing the villagers legal assistance. “He should have surrendered in court and recalled the warrant. Had he done so, he could have avoided the second jail term.”

K. Sampath from Moolakadu, about six km from Mettur, spent a total of three years in various Karnataka jails. He has six cases against him, three each in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. “Every month, I need to spend at least 10 days making my trial appearances,” he says. “It costs me about Rs 200 for every trip to the Kollegal court.” Kollegal is about 150 km from Mettur.

R. Podaran Mathayan, a relative of Veerappan from Yemanur in Dharmapuri district, is the butt of local jokes. People here say he has a case against him in every district in the vicinity — three in Kollegal, two in Sathyamangalam, four in Bhavani and one in Pennagaram. In one case, he is accused of having received Rs 10,000 from Veerappan. He was also accused in four other cases but has been acquitted in those. Mathayan spends around Rs 1,000 a month, visiting the various courts.

Most of the accused claim the Special Task Force (STF) foisted the cases on them on false charges. The Justice AJ Sadashiva Commission has confirmed allegations of human rights violations by the STF. On the basis of the report, the National Human Rights Commission ordered the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka governments to provide compensation worth Rs 2.8 crore to 89 persons — 38 in Tamil Nadu and 51 in Karnataka. While the Tamil Nadu government has compensated all the 38 claimants, Karnataka is yet to grant compensation to 13 persons. “The Commission heard the testimonies of just 193 people. That is only a fraction of the STF’s rights abuse victims — we have identified at least 750,” says Henry Tiphagne, the executive director of People’s Watch.

ACCORDING TO activists, the STF routinely took people into custody at dates earlier than those stated in the official records. They were illegally detained in STF camps for many days before being produced in court. Mani, from Naicken Thanda, accused in a case that dates back to 1993, says STF personnel arrested her on a bus in Mettur as she was going home one night. “My husband was a truck driver. Someone told the police that he was involved in smuggling sandalwood for Veerappan. The police picked me up from the bus in full public view and detained me in the camp. After many days, they produced me in the court with a totally new story, claiming Iwas arrested when I was taking ragi flour to Veerappan,” she says. “I have never seen Veerappan. I have only seen him on television. I was in jail for 11 months for a crime I did not commit.” Her husband turned himself in soon after her arrest and was also jailed.

According to the FIR against her, Mani is implicated along with eight others in a case against two men, Chinna Ponnan and Appu, who are charged with having opened fire at a police party at Kallatty Kanavai. The police claim the accused were intercepted carrying food and explosives for Veerappan. Chinna Ponnan and Appu are alleged to have fired at the police when asked to surrender. The police say they later seized gelatine, ammonium nitrate and about 40 kg of ragi flour from the group. The explosives, the police claimed, were intended for use in landmines, meant to “blow up the police party”. The FIR says Mani was carrying about 20kg of ragi in a bag.

Chinna Ponnan, for his part, says the police picked him up from his home one night because they suspected him of selling chicken from his poultry farm to Veerappan’s gang. “They took me to the Mettur camp, where I was kept in illegal custody,” he says. “Later, we were produced in court with the police claiming that they had arrested me in the forests after I fired at them.” However, says Ponnan, life has recompensed him for the injustice he suffered — today, his son is a software engineer with Infosys. The case against him, however, is still pending at the court in Bhavani. His co- accused, Appu, says that after he spent a year in jail on TADA charges, he decided to become a police informer.

A similar case involves a “gang” of nine whom the police claims to have intercepted in Athimarathupatti Pallam in the Bargur Reserve Forest area. They allege the “gang” was fleeing after beating up villagers in Kongadai for passing on information to the police. The FIR says Veerappan’s brother Arjunan was among those intercepted but that he managed to escape along with four others. The police claim they seized single barrel guns, gunpowder, about 100 gms of iron balls, two crude bombs and about 80 kg of gelatine. According to A. Aruldoss, coordinator of the Rehabilitation Centre for Tortured Victims in Mettur, there is no substance to these allegations — the accused are merely victims of police attempts to spread terror to scare people off from helping Veerappan.

MANY OF those accused of having supported Veerappan complain that they were never given an opportunity to present their cases before the Sadashiva Commission. “Rotti” Munusamy from Kolathur says the STF ruined his life. “The STF took me into custody accusing me of supplying buns to Veerappan. I was detained in an STF camp for three years — they made me work as a cook there.” After his detention, his children — two daughters and a son — were no longer able to go to school.

Chellappan Muthu from Koonandiyoor used to work as a vehicle cleaner. He says he was washing a bus early one morning when he was arrested. He says the police tortured him in the camp.

“Tailor” Basuwan, a 44-year-old from Thevar Malai in Bargur forest, was arrested on suspicion of having supplied clothes to Veerappan’s gang. “But in the FIR they charged me with planting landmines to kill policemen.”

Malaiappa Gounder from Neethipuram near Mettur, says he was on his bullock cart carrying organic waste from the forest when he was arrested. “The police said I was returning after supplying food to Veerappan’s gang and took me into custody,” he says.

Veerappan’s widow Muthulakshmi believes that Veerappan’s immediate family members have suffered as much as anyone else and they should also be compensated. “I married Veerappan in 1990 and lived with him till 1993. After that, I met him only once. But the STF harassed me all through. They illegally kept my father in custody at one of their camps for more than a year and treated him like a slave.”

Says Tiphagne of People’s Watch, “Now that the Sadashiva Commission has established that there is truth in the allegations of atrocities by the STF, the NHRC should find a mechanism to hear the complaints from the estimated 750 people who have serious complaints against the STF.” Activists also plan to move the Madras High Court to quash the cases against the villagers who continue to pay for being residents of the wrong place at the wrong time.


From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 4, Issue 49, Dated Dec 22, 2007