Veerappan: Anatomy of a life of crime

Anatomy of a life of crime

By Our Tamil Nadu Bureau

DHARMAPURI, OCT.19. Veerappan, who was born at Gopinatham in Kollegal taluk of Karnataka, took to a life of petty crime such as poaching and tree felling at the age of 12. Soon enough, the lure of money made him a full-fledged criminal. He took to murder and abduction shortly thereafter.

Veerappan started off life in the major crime league by plundering forest wealth, joining hands with Xavi Gowde. The focus was primarily on elephant tusks, which fetched big money and led the bandit to felling elephants ruthlessly.

The growing demand for sandalwood soon led him to sandalwood smuggling at the age of 18. In his bid to overcome official resistance and to silence law enforcers, Veerappan targeted forest officials and police officials who stood in his way. His list of enemies grew.

Veerappan's first escape from the law came in 1965, after forest officials arrested him for killing an elephant. In due course, he formed his own gang, posing a challenge to both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The murder of a number of forest personnel during three successive years from 1984 turned the attention of the media as well as the State Governments on him.

Escaped from police net

On a visit to Bangalore in December 1986 during the SAARC summit, he was arrested by the police. But once again he escaped. The subsequent murder of forest ranger, Chidambaram, near Erode, drew nationwide attention.

The killing of five persons from his native village in 1989, the abduction and release of five forest personnel in June 89 and the killing of a forest guard in August `89 meant that he was not out of the limelight for long.

These incidents brought home the need for an organised and sustained effort to contain, if not arrest a growing criminal force. Consequently, a special wing of the police came into existence in 1989, both in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, charged with the mission of apprehending Veerappan.

Task force set up

The high-profile murders of the Karnataka Deputy Conservator of Forests, Srinivasan, in 1991, the Karnataka Superintendent of Police, Harikrishnan, in 1992 and sub-inspector, Shakeel Ahmad, in 1992, which put Veerappan on the front pages of the newspapers, led to the setting up of the Special Task Force.

The Special Task Force formally came into existence in 1993 after a landmine attack on the Superintendent of Police, Gopalakrishnan, and his team at Palar near Mettur during a combing operation.

Such became his notoriety that a battalion of the Border Security Force was requisitioned in 1993 to conduct operations against him. Veerappan while carrying out his criminal operations kept insisting on pardon and general amnesty, which none of the Governments could promise. The beheading of hapless villagers suspected of being informants made Veerappan a dreaded name in the Western Ghats.

His forest offences since 1978 included the killing of nearly 2,000 elephants for their tusks.

Veerappan is estimated to have killed 77 civilians at Gethesal, Thalavady, Hasanoor, Arepalayam, Pulinjur and nearby hamlets, nine police personnel from Tamil Nadu, one from the BSF and 24 police personnel from Karnataka. Karnataka lost 24 civilians and four forest personnel while the Tamil Nadu Forest department lost a range officer.

106 cases

There are 106 cases against him in Tamil Nadu, and 70 in Karnataka. His acquaintance with Tamil extremist movements such as the Tamil Nadu Liberation Army (TNLA) and Tamil Nadu Retrieval Troops opened up new avenues to pursue his thirst for money, resorting to several abductions. Notable among them were the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Chidambaranathan, in 1994, the Karnataka matinee idol, Rajkumar in 2000, and the former Karnataka Agriculture Minister, H. Nagappa.

Cell phones make many feel ignored : maya of Tech

Having a decent, uninterrupted conversation with someone is becoming extremely difficult because everyone’s interested only in their cell phones. Going out to eat with Crackberry addicts (Blackberry owners) is so annoying as they are either playing the game Brickbreaker or are boasting about how high their score is if there is a fellow addict in the group. The phone’s instant messenger service is even more irritating when hanging out with friends, as realisation dawns that you are not the only one the guy you fancy is messaging constantly.
iPhone lovers are no better ’cos they feel very insecure about the fact that many feel the Blackberry is superior. They have taken it upon themselves to lecture fellow iPhone owners on how important it is to remain a loyalist and after the lecturebaazi is over, it’s time to show-off all the latest software they have downloaded.
Vertu, Dior and other ridiculously expensive phone owners are equally insufferable. Now, no one wants to be portrayed as a rich flake. “I like a simple phone with basic features like messaging and calling features, my secretary is there to check mails and I have a camera for pictures,” is one silly line you have to constantly listen too. Another one is, “Oh the concierge feature is such a blessing. Sitting in Delhi, I got my son a table at Maddox (one of the hippest nightclubs) on Friday night in London.”
Next in line are the Simple Simons, with non-fancy phones. Since there are no features to boast of, they rely on the most basic function of all — incoming calls — to demonstrate how much in demand they are. Be prepared to listen in on their conversations forever while sitting with them.
Fitness expert Leena Mogre has noticed that this incessant need to text or chat even tempts her clients at the gym. “Cellphones can be very distracting and while doing weight training and other rigorous exercises. We have a strict policy against cell phone usage. If the rule is flouted, the phone is confiscated,” says Leena as this is the only way to prevent injury.
You can be that strict only at a gym, place of worship, school or workplace. Designer Manish Gupta confesses, “I am quite addicted. Without the phone it seems that life is still. But I use only the basic function i.e calling and messaging which I think nobody can live without.” Workaholics like Madonna sleep with their Blackberry so that they can answer urgent calls and emails 24x7.
So how do you get someone’s undivided attention when the conversation doesn’t revolve around the reading of a will, a case verdict or an answer to a proposal? A rare exception in the mobile crazy world, designer Nalandda Bhandari says, “The responsibility lies in one’s hand. It depends on how he/she prioritise things in his/her life.” Nalandda, doesn’t own a laptop at home as she doesn’t want to work after work and doesn’t carry a Blackberry for the same reason.
Honestly, it’s impossible to be like her for most of us. So looks like the best way to get your fair share of attention is to be the person, at the other end of the line. This way you will have their full attention.

Some ways to invest in gold!

For centuries gold has been the ultimate cushion against the dangers of stocks price falls, fluctuating rate changes, inflation, rising/falling real estate prices, natural calamities, wars and more. Gold has been the best way to safeguard your investments against unstable financial markets.
Why is gold such a good investment?
Whether or not gold is a good investment, is a question that does not have a simple answer. Gold has appreciated substantially over the past couple of years. The growth rate of late has been much higher than the conventional rate of appreciation.
However, if we look at the past 15-20 years record, it is seen that Gold is a hedge against inflation. Over the last 20 years, the average return from Gold has been around 7%. So, if the past trend continues, one could expect around say 6-9% returns from gold in the long-term.
Also, another aspect that we should look at is a weakening currency. No matter which country you originate from, there is a chance that your country’s currency will suffer a downfall at a particular point of time. Gold, on the other hand, retains its true value and can help you protect your riches because it does not rely on the state of the country's economic, whether it is on the up or downtrend. Therefore, investing a small portion of one's investment portfolio in gold would be a good idea.
How can one invest in gold?
Gold can be bought in various forms and the decision should be based on the reason you need gold. If you see this purely as an investment, you can either buy it in the form of physical gold - bars, biscuits and or coins or even in a dematerialized form.
For most Indians, gold purchases usually mean buying jewellery. However, the disadvantage of buying gold in the form of jewellery is that its resale is not always a profitable proposition.
Here are some other ways of investing in gold:
Gold ETFs
You can invest in gold by buying Gold Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). Being ETFs, these funds are listed and traded on the stock exchange i.e. investors can buy and sell them like any other stock on the stock exchange, on a real- time basis. All you need is a demat account and a share trading account with a broker or sub-broker who deals in stocks. These are traded in units of one. That means you can buy one or more units at a time. Each unit represents approximately the market value of one gram of gold.
Gold ETFs are traded close to real-time gold prices in the market, that is, ETF prices move up and down with the market price of gold in the conventional marketplace.
Your expenses in an ETF would be very low: you would pay securities transaction tax (STT), brokerage /service tax, and the like, which are unlikely to exceed around 1% of market price. You'd hold gold in demat form in your demat account, just as you hold shares. If you decide to sell your ETF units, you can do so through your stock broker or sub-broker and the charges would be the same as what you paid while buying the ETF.
Thus an ETF is very convenient, and you need not worry about the purity of the gold, secure storage, insurance against theft, and so on.
Physical gold
This is the traditional way to invest in gold. Investors can buy gold and then store it in a bank's locker. If you are one of those people who keep buying gold jewellery for a marriage of a daughter or son, a better option would be to buy gold ETF units now at the current price of gold, hold them in your demat account, and sell them in the future, whenever you want, and use the money to buy jewellery then.
In this way, you will be protecting yourself from rising gold prices, while also sparing yourself anxiety about the purity and safety of your gold. You can keep accumulating gold at a slow rate, perhaps even one gram at a time.
It is evident that gold is an asset class that you can rarely go wrong with. Therefore, think seriously about investing in gold.