The widow of Veerappan, India's most notorious bandit, has been arrested in the southern state of Karnataka on a number of charges, including murder. Police said Muthulakshmi Veerappan had been "evading capture for a long time".
Her husband was shot dead by police in 2004. He had eluded them for 15 years and was accused of 100 killings and a massive amount of ivory smuggling. After his death his widow tried to use his Robin Hood image in an unsuccessful campaign to win local elections.
The cases against Muthulakshmi Veerappan include the alleged murder of a forestry official, involvement in an attack on a police station and a bomb explosion that killed 20 policemen on patrol in 1992.
She was detained close to the border with Tamil Nadu along with three other associates of Veerappan, officials said. Police said the arrest was delayed as they required time to assess her involvement in Veerappan's actions.
In her election campaign in Tamil Nadu in 2006, Muthulakshmi Veerappan was unapologetic about Veerappan's legacy. "Veerappan helped the tribals and poor. I too will fight for your rights," she said at the time.
She said she had been detained illegally for a month when police carried out operations to hunt her husband down.
The Indian government had offered a 50m rupee ($1m) reward for any information leading to Veerappan's arrest. He was caught in an undercover sting operation and was lured to a location to meet an ambulance that would treat his asthma. Police lying in wait ordered him to surrender but he opened fire, they said.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/30/2008 08:41 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
