Fatal error of judgement by Veerappan

He emerged from the sanctuary of the deep jungle to save an eye, and lost his life. Close to Monday midnight, a marksman of the Special Task Force (STF) shot India's most wanted killer and bandit, Veerappan.

In a bizarre first, the brigand's trademark moustache, a feature of both dread and dozens of TV imitations, was missing. He is not alive to tell us why he clipped those famous whiskers.

The ambulance was actually a police trap and the man who drove Veerappan and three of his associates into the fatal ambush was a police constable. The STF called it "Operation Cocoon".

Veerappan had lived his life outside the law, striking fast, without mercy, and then retreating to vanish into the thick Sathyamangalam jungle that straddles Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Eye treatment

On Monday, he left the safety of his jungle lair to seek treatment for an eye ailment and, at the same time, to find new men for his dwindling outfit. It was to prove a fatal error of judgment. He was dead by 11pm, shot through the head by an STF team that had known he was coming.

The STF had acted on its information quickly. The STF chief who led the encounter, additional director-general of police K. Vijay Kumar, said it was possible to get close to the four-member gang of Veerappan in the guise of civilians helping him to get his eye treated. A police vehicle was converted into an ambulance of a private hospital in Salem town and a constable disguised himself as its driver, Vijay Kumar said. The driver jumped out when the firing began.

An STF group lay in wait close to an abandoned school on the outskirts of Papparanpatti village, near Dharmapuri, about 350 km west of Chennai, after parking a truck across the road to block the Veerappan van.

The van came around 10.45pm. First, the STF told the van inmates to put up their hands and surrender. But, after a minute's silence, Veerappan and his men began to shoot. Vijay Kumar said that after about a 20-minute exchange of fire, the STF men cautiously approached the van and retrieved the bodies of Veerappan and his three associates – Sethukuli Govindan, Chandra Gouda and another Govindan.

A 12-bore shotgun, two AK-47 rifles, one self-loading rifle, three hand grenades and some cash were recovered from the van, he said.

The STF had known everything for some time. The new operation had been meticulously planned down to the last detail after the STF failed to get the bandit in March-April in the thick forests on the western side of the Cauvery river. In the jungle the police had discovered, at great human cost, that Veerappan was the hunter, not them.

This time they deployed a large posse of men in Veerappan's native village of Gopinatham, on the Karnataka side of the border, to force him to the eastern side of the Cauvery river, which is not as thickly wooded. It worked. Then they decided to reel him in.

Intelligence

STF men had mixed with the local populations in various villages, posing as beggars, mendicants, bus drivers and cowherds in their attempt to gather intelligence on the bandit's habits, movements and whereabouts. Some STF personnel even went undercover as prisoners in jails.

Information begin pouring in. The hunter had become the hunted.

Among the undercover STF men, constable Murugesan was assigned to watch the village of Papparanpatti, close to where the final encounter took place. The constable provided the first break when he told his officers about Veerappan's need for eye treatment and his search for new associates.

"This was an extraordinary intelligence operation planned over a period of several weeks. The actual preparation began two to three weeks ago. We got Veerappan into a shell, or cocoon; that is, an enclosed space of a vehicle before moving in to get him," he said. And that is how it came to be called "Operation Cocoon" when the STFs planned the operation over the last few months.

"We acted on information that he had an eyesight problem and was seeking medical help. Also, he was in contact with some people in seeking certain things and new associates," the STF chief told reporters at his Sathyamangalam camp, about 60 km from the site of the operation.

"Veerappan was always at an advantage when he was hiding in the jungles and we went combing for him; now it was our turn to wait in hiding for him as he drove into the trap," the STF chief said, describing the fugitive as a "worthy foe" needing the best of tactics and strategy to be conquered.