A local court in Tamil Nadu’s Erode district has acquitted all nine people accused in the abduction of Kannada actor Dr Rajkumar and three others by forest brigand Veerappan and his associates in 2000.
Delivering the judgement here on Tuesday, September 25, 2018, K Mani, the judge of the Third Additional District Court in Gobichettipalayam, said that the no inquiry was conducted with Rajkumar after his release or his wife Parvathamma, a key witness in the case to establish that the accused were involved in the crime.
The judgment comes 18 years after the abduction and 12 years after death of Dr Rajkumar.
“The prosecution has failed to provide even an iota of evidence to prove that these nine men were connected to Veerappan and (his aide) Sethukuzhi Govindan. Hence, giving a benefit of the doubt, I acquit all the nine men from the case,” the judge told the crowded court.
The nine men – Maran, Iniyan, Andril, Sathya, Nagaraj, Puttusamy, Rama, Basavanna and Govindaraj – walked free, more than eight years after they were made accused in the case. Dr Rajkumar, his son-in-law S A Govindaraj, assistant director Nagappa and the actor’s aide were abducted by Veerappan and his associates from the Kannada superstar’s farmhouse in Thalavadi in Erode district on July 30, 2000.
“The case should not be seen from the angle of a Kannada superstar being abducted, but from the angle of an Indian citizen being kidnapped,” the judge said, reading the order in open court.
The actor was released from Veerappan’s captivity after 108 days following several rounds of negotiations and visits to forests by R R Gopal, editor of Tamil magazine Nakheeran, Tamil nationalist leader Pazha Nedumaran and others. Though the case was filed in 2000, the CB-CID filed the charge sheet only in 2011 and the proceedings went on for nearly eight years.
Judge Mani also tore into the prosecution for failing on many counts – failing to prove that the accused were connected to Veerappan, production of crucial evidence and not questioning Dr Rajkumar and Parvathamma when they were alive. Also, the judge wanted to know why the family of the Kannada superstar never came forward to file a complaint with regard to the abduction.
“Why did the family members not file a complaint (in Thalavadi)? Even his wife did not file a complaint? Why was Parvathamma not questioned in the case? Even one of the captives, Nagappa, has said that when Dr Rajkumar was kidnapped, he and two others went willingly with the actor to the forests? How should I take these statements?” the judge asked.
The additional judge also questioned the CB-CID, which probed the case, on why it failed to question Gopal, Nedumaran and other interlocutors who went inside the dense forests for negotiations.
“If these men are accused, why were not their houses searched? The prosecution failed to provide even a shred of evidence to show that these men were connected with Veerappan,” he said. “The FIR says Dr Rajkumar was abducted and tortured, but the videos released from the forests showed him happy. In the video, Rajkumar himself says he was happy,” he said.
Judge Mani also questioned why no identification parade of the accused was held after Dr Rajkumar was released from forests by Veerappan. The prosecution side had produced 47 witnesses, 51 documents and 32 material evidence to strengthen its case. However, the judge sought to know why the gun, which was alleged to have been used, was not concealed.
Late Rajkumar’s wife Parvathamma, who was also present when Veerappan abducted her husband, could not depose before the court due to ill-health before she passed away in 2017.
Charges were framed under Sections 109 (abetment of an offence), 120 B (conspiracy) 147 (unlawful assembly), 148 (unlawful assembly with deadly weapons), 449 (criminal trespass into house), 364 A (abduction for ransom), and 365 (abduction for wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal Code, besides Section 25 (1) (b) and 27 (1) of the Arms Act.
The abduction had put both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka on tenterhooks for three months as the thespian was released 108 days later.
The abduction had led to rioting on the streets of Bengaluru with offices of four Tamil newspapers being ransacked and gave sleepless nights to both S M Krishna and M Karunanidhi, the then chief ministers of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, respectively.
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