Search the Internet          Tips

Veerappan has given audio cassette to Nagappa's wife

Veerappan is believed to have handed over an audio cassette to an acquaintance of H Nagappa, the former Karnataka minister whom the brigand abducted on Sunday night from Chamarajnagar district.

Nagappa has twice represented Hanur segment in the Karnataka assembly.

In the another development, police contradicted earlier reports that two others had been abducted along with Nagappa.

Nagappa is the only hostage, they said.

Sources said that Veerappan took Nagappa to another farmhouse where they group collected drinking water and chatted with the owner for some time.

The owner, an acquaintance of Nagappa, was given an audio cassette by the brigand and asked to hand it over to Nagappa's wife.

Senior police officials have heard the contents of the cassette and are awaiting permission from the political leadership before making the contents public.

After leaving the farmhouse, Veerappan and his men, along with Nagappa, commandeered a bus after ordering all the passengers to get down, sources said.

Veerappan asked the driver to take them to Dhibam, the forest on the Tamil Nadu side, they said adding, the group alighted after travelling a few kilometres and vanished into the forest.

Soon after news of the abduction spread, residents of Hanur and adjacent villages surrounded the Hanur police station forced the policemen to leave the town for failing to protect their leader. Even the district collector was not allowed to enter Hanur.

Angry mobs also set fire to a bus. Additional forces have been rushed to the area.

On Monday, things did not look any better and at one point of time people surrounded the collector and stared pelting stones prompting the administration to clamp Section 144 in the town to bring the situation under control.

By then, a vehicle belonging to the collector and two police jeeps had been damaged.

Police have joined the Special Task Force in combing operations to nab the brigand.

RELATED REPORTS
No word from Veerappan yet
Why did Veerappan abduct Nagappa?

The saga of Veerappan
The Rajakumar Abduction: complete coverage

Tell us what you think of this report