 | |
| Date | 9 April 1993 |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 11°57′29″N77°38′38″E / 11.958°N 77.644°E |
| Cause | IED Landmine |
| Deaths | 22 |
| Non-fatal injuries | 13 |
| Accused | Veerappan Muthulakshmi Kolathur Mani S. Sivasubramaniam Savaraiyappan Papathi Bonda Basava Eranna, etc. |
The Palar Blast was a landmine attack on 9 April 1993 in Karnataka, India. The attack, organized by the forest brigand Veerappan, killed 22 people, making it the deadliest explosive attack in Karnataka during the 20th century.
The sandalwood smuggler and criminal Veerappan killed a Bandari in Govindapadi village of Mettur on 8, April 1993, suspecting him to be a police informer and openly challenged the police force to track and arrest his gang. [1] He also claimed he would raise a banner at Kolathur village on shandy day, written in Tamil language challenging "Rambo" Gopalakrishnan, the Tamil Nadu police officer, who also belongs to Veerappan's caste. [2] Months prior to this Karnataka and Tamil Nadu had formed a joint Special Task Force, with one of their objectives being to track down Veerappan.
Taking the open challenge, IPS officer K.Gopalakrishnan left Palar base of the area's Special Task Force, near M.M.Hills, 100 km from Kollegal of Karnataka along with a team of 41 members which included police from two states, forest officials, forest watchers and informers. [1] The team left in two vehicles, of which one was a bus carrying most of the team members, and a jeep carrying K.Goplakrishnan, the IPS officer, who stood on the footboard of the jeep watching the road ahead. [3] The Veerappan gang had planted IED landmines on the road in more than 14 places to halt their approach. [1]
As the bus was passing over the landmines, Simon Madaiah detonated the gelatin sticks just outside the town of Surakkamaduvu, resulting in an explosion that threw the bus hundreds of feet away and killed 22 people. [1] [4] [2] Madaiah sustained minor injuries during the incident but escaped in the forest. [2] Among the deceased were five police men of Tamil Nadu, 17 forest officials and informers, while 13 other members of the team, including Karnataka police, were injured. [1] Members of the Veerappan gang then fired on the team from a vantage point in the forest. The police returned fire in self-protection and to prevent the outlaws from stealing the team's arms and ammunition. [1]
Tamil Nadu IPS officer K. Gopalakrishnan, who was standing on the footboard of the jeep, was thrown out during the explosion. He suffered severe injuries to his head and legs and required nine surgeries. He returned to duty after 18 months and later retired as DIG in 2008. He witnessed several members of the gang including Madhaiayan, Gnanaprakasam, Simon and Bilavendran at the blast site. His eye witness testimony was crucial in prosecuting those members responsible for the blast. [5] [6]
Police filed a case at M. M. Hills Police Station against 124 persons under TADA in connection with the blast and 50 were arrested by police. [7] [3] [1] [2] The accused included Veerappan, Muthulakshmi, Kolathur Mani, and reporter S. Sivasubramaniam. Muthulakshmi, wife of Veerappan as well as Kolathur Mani, a Tamil activist were acquitted. [8] Seven members of Veerappan's gang were convicted and awarded with life term sentences. [3] A later appeal at the Supreme Court by four of the members, would see these life sentences changed to the death penalty, a rare occurrence. [7] The four convicts; Jnanaprakash (Veerappan's elder brother), Bilavendran, Simon and Meesekar Madaiah, filed against execution of their death penalties at Karnataka High Court. [4]
Chamarajanagar or Chamarajanagara is the southernmost district in the state of Karnataka, India. It was carved out of the original larger Mysore District in 1998. Chamarajanagar town is the headquarters of this district.
Events in the year 1993 in the Republic of India.
Koose Munusamy Veerappan was an Indian criminal who was active for 36 years from 1968 to 2004. He was charged with sandalwood smuggling and poaching of elephants in the scrub lands and forests in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. He was wanted for killing approximately 184 people, about half of whom were police officers and forest officials. He was also responsible for poaching approximately 500 of the 2000 elephants killed in the peninsular region where he was active and for smuggling ivory worth US$2.6 million and about 65 tons of sandalwood worth approximately US$22 million.
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Kannada film actor Rajkumar was abducted by Veerappan on July 30, 2000, during the course of an armed attack on a farmhouse belonging to the actor in Gajanur, India. Rajkumar was released by Veerappan on November 15, 2000, after spending 108 days in his custody. The abduction resulted in further deterioration of already strained relations between the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, creating a tense situation in the two states.
Attahasa (transl. Defiance) is a 2013 Indian Kannada-language biographical film directed by A. M. R. Ramesh, based on the notorious forest brigand Veerappan. Kishore plays the role of Veerappan in the film, whilst featuring Arjun Sarja and Suresh Oberoi. After much delay in the theatrical release the film was opened to screens on 14 February 2013 all across the southern states of India to positive reviews. The film was partially reshot in Tamil as Vana Yuddham. The film was dubbed into Telugu as Veerappan.
B. B. Ashok Kumar is a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police credited with arresting several notorious criminals and the many police encounters in which he was involved trying to capture hardened criminals.
Operation Cocoon was an operation launched by the Special Task Force of Tamil Nadu Police to capture the forest brigand Veerappan and his associates, who were dominant in Sathyamangalam Forest in the South Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. The operation was headed by K. Vijay Kumar, and N. K. Senthamarai Kannan.
Pandillapalli Srinivas was an Indian Forest Service officer, a Kirti Chakra recipient, who is widely considered to be one of the most outstanding figures in Indian forest conservation, served as Assistant Commander of Special Task Force(STF) to nab gangster Veerappan.
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N. K. Senthamarai Kannan is a Police Commissioner, and former Inspector General of Police in the Indian Police Service. He is the first Tiruppur city police commissioner. He has also served as a Special Task Force spy who headed the intelligence wing in the Operation Cocoon, behind the encounter with the notorious bandit Veerappan under the leadership of K. Vijay Kumar. The 2016 film Killing Veerappan is based on the operation carried out by him. Kannan is a 1997-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, who entered the State police service as a Deputy Superintendent of Police in 1989, and was later conferred IPS in 2003 with six years’ retrospective effect. He studied Economics in The American College, Madurai and later became Asst Professor in Economics in the same college from 1985, worked there till he entered Tamil Nadu State Police service in 1989.
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Palar is a river in the Indian states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. It originates near Guthiyalathur in Bhavani Taluk of Erode district in Tamil Nadu and forms border between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Later, it flows into the Kaveri River near Palar in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
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