Bengaluru: Eighteen years after the sensational abduction case of Kannada superstar Rajkumar, a district court in Gobichettipalayam in Tamil Nadu has acquitted all the nine accused.
Forest brigand Veerappan and thirteen others were accused of abducting Rajkumar on July 30, 2000, only nine of whom are alive today.
Rajkumar was abducted from his farmhouse in Tamil Nadu to a forest in an armed attack. He was released 108 days later.
The episode had created tense situations in both the states and kept the governments on tenterhooks. It had also led to riots on the streets of Bengaluru.
To avoid a bloodbath and to ensure Rajkumar's safety both the Karnataka and the Tamil Nadu governments decided against a police and military operation.
Veerappan's demands, in return for the actor's release, were negotiated with by journalist RR Gopal, editor of Tamil magazine Nakkeeran. There were allegations of a huge "ransom" paid by the Karnataka government for the release. The then chief minister of Karnataka had dismissed such allegations.
Veerappan died in 2004 in an encounter by the Tamil Nadu Special Task Force. Rajkumar died in 2006.
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