Bangalore: Leader of Janata Dal-United (JD-U) in Karnataka Assembly, P G R Sindhia
on December 13 ruled out the possibility of forest brigand Veerappan having killed H
Nagappa and claimed that he died in an encounter with police whose intention was to
free the hostage.
Sindhia, who visited the slain leader's family at Kamagere in Chamarajanagar
district on December 12, said circumstantial evidence points at police encounter.
He said Nagappa could have lost his life in an encounter with Tamil Nadu Special
Task Force (STF), or Karnataka STF, or in their joint operations. Sindhia said they
may not have informed or got concurrence from Chief Minister S M Krishna.
Sindhia said his sources have told him policemen disguising themselves as 'Ayyappa'
devotees entered the forests with the intention to kill Veerappan and free Nagappa.
He suspected that the plan might have gone awry with Nagappa becoming a casualty in
the encounter.
Sindhia, who was Home Minister in the erstwhile J H Patel Cabinet, said one section
of the STF were keen to go ahead with operations to nab the elusive bandit and
another section wanted to kill the brigand to "cover up" vis-à-vis "what transpired"
to secure the release of Kannada matinee idol Raj Kumar more than two years ago.
He demanded an enquiry by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the Nagappa
episode.
Meanwhile, Sindhia said Nagappa's family is feeling "betrayed" by Karnataka, Tamil
Nadu and Central governments and wants the truth to come out.
PTI
