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Contrary to movies, villain's the upper hand |
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August 1, 2000
BANGALORE, India (AP) - A former movie actor and South Indian power broker was kidnapped with three other men at his home Sunday night by a well-known criminal gang, the chief minister of Karnataka said Monday. Raj Kumar, in his '70s, gained fame by appearing in more than 200 Kannada-language films over a period of 50 years and is a hero in the southern state of Karnataka. Stray incidents of stone throwing and road blockades occurred in Bangalore, the capital, and eleswhere in Karnataka state as news spread of Kumar's kidnapping. Shopkeepers pulled down metal shutters to protect their windows, bus services were suspended and schools were closed until Wednesday as a precaution. Kumar was hosting a housewarming in his home village of Gajanur, just across the state line in Tamil Nadu, when a dozen gunmen burst in, kidnapping him; his son-in-law, S.A. Govingaraj, and two other men, the Karnataka chief minister, S.M. Krishna, told a news conference. He said the gang was led by a well-known criminal, Veerappan, who uses only one name and has issued threatened Kumar in the past.
Kumar is politically powerful and there is rivalry over water and other issues between people who live along the border between the two states. But no clear reason was given for his kidnapping. Veerappan, who has a price on his head and is wanted dead or alive by police, gave an audio cassette to Kumar's wife and told her to take to Krishna, the highest elected official in Karnataka. After a meeting Monday with M. Karunanidhi, chief minister of neighboring Tamil Nadu state where the kidnapping took place, the two state leaders agreed to send an emissary to Veerappan, as he had demanded on the cassette. Veerappan began as an ivory poacher and by 1986 had become a full-time smuggler of rare sandalwood from the forests where he dwells, after eliminating other gangs. Police accuse him and his gang of 36 killings of police and forest service officers since 1989. He has staged several kidnappings and released the victims, often for ransom. Veerappan had been lying low since August, 1997, when he freed the last of nine forest service officers he had kidnapped that July. In that case, he had also sent an audio cassette to the chief minister of Tamil Nadu state, but the details were not released. Members of the national Parliament expressed anguish in the capital, New Delhi, over the kidnapping. The state authorities were criticized in speech after speech for their inability to capture Veerappan, although journalists have interviewed and filmed him. Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh assured the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament, that the national government would help the local authorities free Kumar. Kumar's wife, Parvathamma, appeared at a press conference with Krishna, Karnataka's highest elected official, and said the gunmen had entered the house about 8:30 p.m. Sunday, just after dinner. "We were taken by surprise," she said, adding that her husband told the gunmen, "I will come with you and talk." He went outside and then Veerapanna, the gang leader, came into the house and handed her a cassette, telling her to take it to the chief minister. "He said they would not harm anyone. They behaved well," she said. A movie actor and South Indian power broker was kidnapped with three other men at his home Sunday night by a well-known criminal gang, the chief minister of Karnataka said Monday. Raj Kumar, in his '70s, gained fame in Kannada-language films and is a hero in the southern state of Karnataka. He was hosting a housewarming in his home village of Gajanur, just across the state line in Tamil Nadu, when a dozen gunmen burst in, kidnapping Kumar; his son-in-law, S.A. Govingaraj, and two other men, the Karnataka chief minister, S.M. Krishna, told a news conference. He said the gang was led by a well-known criminal, Veerappan, who uses only one name and has issued threatened Kumar in the past. The former actor is politically powerful and there is rivalry over water and other issues between people who live along the border between the two states. Kumar's wife, Parvathamma, appeared at the press conference with the chief minister, Karnataka's highest elected official, and said the gunmen had entered the house about 8:30 p.m. Sunday, just after dinner. "We were taken by surprise," she said, adding that her husband told the gunmen, "I will come with you and talk." He went outside and then Veerapanna, the gang leader, came into the house and handed her a cassette, telling her to take it to the chief minister. "He said they would not harm anyone. They behaved well," she said, Mrs. Kumar arrived at the chief minister's house at 2 a.m. Monday with the cassette, which said only that a representative of the kidnappers would make their demands known later, Krishna said. He said he would take Kumar's two sons with him to visit the chief minister of neighboring Tamil Nadu state to work for Kumar's release. |
