Kannada actor Rajakumar felt relieved and was not 'excited' by the death of forest brigand Veerappan, who held him captive in the forests for 109 days.
Rajakumar looked happy while addressing a press conference in the company of his family members at his house in Bangalore. He said he was waiting to take a trip "fearlessly" to his native Dodda Gajanur on the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border, from where he was kidnapped by the bandit on July 30, 2002.
"A nuisance which held the nation to ransom finally has ended," he said, describing Veerappan as a "cruel animal" and a "bad worm".
Rajakumar said that the security forces should not rest on their achievement, instead should go all out to capture other bandits like Veerappan still operating in the area. "There are other worms in the forest who have followed Veerappan's footsteps, they also should be eliminated," he said.
"I did not have any excitement when I heard Veerappan is dead at about 12.30am, but was relieved," the Kannada film icon said, expressing gratitude to Tamil nationalist leader P Nedumaran, whose intervention helped him to escape the brigand's clutches.
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Describing his over three-month-long captivity in the jungle as a learning experience, Rajakumar said, "I did't have any fear. In the first two days, I tried to reform him and offered assistance, but he did not heed my advice".
The thespian actor's wife Parvathamma Rajakumar said, "I wish we could have got him alive, I would have asked him why he kidnapped (Rajkumar). We couldn't ask him then".
Dismissing suggestions about making a movie on Veerappan, Rajakumar said, "We do not do movies on all ideas, we discuss and decide on a movie. We do not want to do one on him".
His son Raghavendra said, "Let us do a movie on something good, why should we do on Veerappan and provoke youngsters to take his path".
