India's Real-Life Drama

By Meenakshi Ganguly/New Delhi

A ragged bunch of toughs sit around their hirsute, half-crazed leader. They are drinking alcohol, laughing raucously and enjoying the terror of their hostages, who are huddled together, fearing almost certain death. Suddenly, the leader raises his hand; his followers fall silent. All they can hear is the sounds of the jungle, but they know their chief has an uncanny sense for danger, one that has helped them evade an elite government-commando battalion for several years. "He has eyes everywhere," an awestruck movie-villager explains.

This tense scene is from the current Hindi film hit Jungle, a biopic about Koose Muniswamy Veerappan, 53, a notorious murderer, elephant poacher and India's most-wanted criminal. But in real life in the southern state of Karnataka, the bandit is playing out a much more riveting drama. Sunday, July 30, in a caper that could have come from a movie script, Veerappan led a dozen fellow bandits into the home of Rajkumar, 73, an ailing film icon, chattily asked Rajkumar's wife if she recognized him (she did, later recalling his unmissable mustache) and handed her an audiotape of his demands. He then took the actor, a brother-in-law and two other business associates into the forest where Veerappan has hidden out for more than two decades.

In movie terms, the bandit had pulled off a casting coup. Rajkumar is beloved by millions. "This is not just any kidnapping," said state information minister B.K. Chandrashekhar. Some of Rajkumar's fans demanded that the government hunt down Veerappan and rescue their hero. Others prayed for a happy ending. Said S.R. Govindu, president of the actor's fan club: "As in his films, I hope Rajkumar can reform Veerappan and bring him back to Bangalore."

The fans' best hope is that Veerappan will simply let Rajkumar go. The bandit has free run of an almost 2,000-sq.-mi. jungle in Southern India. Here, he has allegedly killed more than 2,000 elephants for their ivory tusks, felled thousands of sandalwood trees to smuggle their aromatic and expensive bark and murdered at least 120 people. Veerappan is more than a match for local police. For the past decade, a force of 600 commandos has been combing the forest in India's longest-running manhunt. It has yielded nothing. Why not? It is often said that the bandit bribes politicians and policemen to tip him off about commando operations. But he also has a network of informers, who dread and respect him. Like a modern-day Robin Hood, he helps the poor with money but demands absolute loyalty in return. His most popular deed was the alleged killing of an associate for raping a tribal woman.

With Veerappan aging and many of his best men arrested or killed, this latest abduction might have a movie-cliche motive: the chance to make one final score and, if possible, negotiate favorable terms of surrender. With more than 100 criminal cases pending against him, Veerappan can't simply walk out of the forest and settle down with his 10-year-old daughter, now being raised by her grandparents. Veerappan has not listed his demands yet, but as in the past, he will probably ask for a pardon, withdrawal of cases against his accomplices, the transfer of charges against him to a court in his native Tamil Nadu state--where he apparently expects more leniency because of his political connections--and billions of rupees. Karnataka authorities called off police who were combing the forest and agreed to talks with Veerappan. And, late in the week, a taped statement from Rajkumar asked police not to launch a rescue, warning that it could be "dangerous."

In the past, Veerappan has returned most of his hostages. Many of them apparently grew to like him. And the bandit is said to be a movie buff: he once demanded that a film be made about him. It's not known whether he has seen Jungle, but Rajkumar's fans will not be reassured by a scene in which the villain, hoping to persuade authorities to give up the chase, sends them the head of a hostage. That's one plot twist the real-life drama could do without.

--With reporting by Saritha Rai/Bangalore

With reporting by Saritha Rai/Bangalore