Tuesday, January 18 2005 22:04 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chennai: Muthulakshmi, the widow of slain sandalwood brigand Veerappan, today (Jan 18, 2005) said she feared for the lives of her two daughters and herself from Special Task Forces (STF) of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka for insisting that a re-post-mortem of Veerappan's body be done.

At a press meet in Chennai, organised by a group of civil liberties organisations, she claimed that a few days after she had demanded re-post-mortem, she was warned by a police officer that if she insisted on raking up the issue, some arrest warrants against her issued by Karnataka and Tamil Nadu would be executed.

Muthulakshmi said the police officer, who had befriended her some months before the encounter killing of the brigand in October last year, had said if she cooperated with the police personnel then STF would talk to the Governments and get her a house and also release the Rs three lakh in a bank account frozen by the STF.

Meanwhile, the fact-finding team, comprising members from 10 civil liberties organisations and individuals, including from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, said Veerappan's killing was through a "fake encounter."

Based on the evidence and information gathered by it, the team was of the opinion that Veerappan and his men were very much in STF custody, "at least two days before the fake encounter and they were tortured and murdered", Prof Ramaswamy of People's Democratic Forum (PDF) and Haribabu, an advocate, alleged.

They said Tamil Nadu Government should register a murder case against STF men involved in the encounter and order a probe by a sitting High Court Judge.