The Rediff Special/ George Iype

For the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam government in Tamil Nadu, the timing was just not right. Eight plastic gunny bags, discovered on the eve of the assembly election in the state, could affect their chances of victory at the polls.

STF commandos searching for Veerappan in Kerala's Walayar forest

The gunny bags, seized by the Special Task Force hunting for Veerappan in the forests of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, contain evidence of the dreaded outlaw's political links. The 13-member STF team, which consists of police personnel from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu as well as the Border Security Force, also confirm that Kannada superstar Dr Rajakumar was freed in exchange for money, claim police officers in Kerala.

The sacks were taken into custody by the STF, after they exchanged fire with Veerappan and his gang on February 2 in the Walayar forests in Kerala's Palakkad district, which borders Tamil Nadu. Senior STF and police officials claim the gunny bags left behind by the gang belonged to the elusive brigand.

How could these sacks embarrass the governments of M Karunanidhi and S M Krishna in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka respectively?

The gunny bags

Senior police officers, who examined the gunny bags, told rediff.com they contained a digital camera, a Walkman, three mobile phones, a number of medicines that included injections for blood pressure and diabetes, gun powder, detonators and lots of food items like rice, curry masala and dried legs of black monkeys.

Those, of course, should not cause too much of a problem. But it is the two diaries -- one digital -- belonging to Veerappan and Rs 292,000, which were also found in the sacks, that could open a can of worms for the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka governments.

The non-digital diary reportedly contains the names of those politicians and timber merchants from Tamil Nadu who helped Veerappan in his two decade-long plunder of forest wealth. Police officials from Kerala, who suddenly found themselves chasing Veerappan, claim that some of Tamil Nadu's police officers were involved in protecting the outlaw all these years.

"The diary contains the secret codes used by the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu STF team. It has all the telephone numbers Veerappan or his associates must have used. But the moot point is this: How can the STF's secret codes and the nature of their operation be known to Veerappan if some policemen had not informed him in advance?" asks a senior Kerala police officer.

Veerappan's purported diary even contains the secret codes -- Eagle, Bison, Jungle and Alpha, Beta, Gamma -- respectively used to identify the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka STF team members, who have been given the task of capturing the brigand. Dr Rajakumar's numbers -- 2258874, 2261610 and 3342696 -- were also found in the diary.

Veerappan and his gang

Which begs the question: Did Veerappan write the diary? Not directly, perhaps. It is known that Veerappan is illiterate. "We feel Veerappan's associates must have made the entries in the diary. Perhaps it was Tamil National Liberation Army leader Maaran who maintained Veerappan's diary," says a Kerala police officer.

Kerala's police officers refused to reveal the names of the politicians mentioned in the diary. But it is an open secret that many Tamil Nadu politicians -- including those belonging to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Pattali Makkal Katchi and the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam -- have maintained regular contact with Veerappan through a number of Tamil militant groups.

PMK leaders in Erode, Salem, Coimbatore and Sathyamangalam have been supportive of Veerappan and extremist outfits like the Tamil Nadu Liberation Army and the Tamil Nadu Retrieval Troops. Police officials point out that some TNLA-TNRT members are estranged PMK members. The PMK itself has often demanded an amnesty in return for the bandit's surrender. Their sympathy for the brigand is indicative in the fact that, last year, even as Veerappan kidnapped Dr Rajakumar, local PMK leaders cajoled his wife Muthulakshmi, now living in Erode, to contest on a party ticket in Tamil Nadu's assembly election.

Officials say they are trying to trace the telephone numbers found in the digital diary and on the mobile phones, which were being charged on a battery-powered charger. They could be operated in hilly forests near towns like Coimbatore, Erode and Palakkad.

STF commando searching for Veerappan in Kerala's Walayar forest

This is the first time the STF has seized Veerappan's supplies. But do the seized items prove that the Kannada matinee idol was released in exchange for a ransom? There is a strong possibility, say police officers. "We are sending the Rs 500 notes to the Reserve Bank of India, where they will be examined," says Palakkad Superintendent of Police P Tomin J Thachankary.

"The fact that Rs 292,000 was found in the gunny bags does not prove Dr Rajakumar was freed in exchange for money. But how did a fresh set of Rs 500 notes come into his hands? This needs to be investigated," said the Palakkad SP. "But the materials found in Veerappan's gunny bags give us a fairly good idea of how he operates and survives in the forests."

Dr Rajakumar

When Dr Rajakumar was freed, it was alleged Veerappan let him go in return for a huge sum of money offered to him by the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka governments; the length of the kidnap was eroding their credibility. The Rs 292,000 in Veerappan's gunny bags has led Kerala police officers to believe a huge ransom was indeed paid to Veerappan in exchange for Dr Rajakumar's release.

Tamil nationalist leader P Nedumaran and Bangalore-based Dr Bhanu -- the emissaries who clinched the deal -- claimed Veerappan had released Dr Rajakumar in order to protect the four million-odd Tamilians in Karnataka. But it is believed the Veerappan diaries, which are now in the Tamil Nadu police's custody, may have details of the transactions behind Dr Rajakumar's release.

"No one knows why, one fine day, Veerappan decided to free Dr Rajakumar. There was something fishy in the deal and the chief ministers in Bangalore and Madras refused to shed light on the situation. The answers could be available in these diaries," an STF officer said.

Now that they have laid their hands on Veerappan's gunny bags, the STF claims it is a matter of time before they capture the brigand. Even before that happens, though, the contents of his gunny bags could prove embarrassing for the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka governments.

Design: Lynette Menezes

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