surendra shetty

For nearly 20 years India could not catch Veerappan. Then a cop used a fake ambulance and the bandit's failing eyesight to end it in one night. His name is K Vijay Kumar, the IPS officer who headed the Special Task Force. Veerappan was linked to at least 184 murders, more than half of them police officers. He poached over 500 elephants and smuggled thousands of tonnes of sandalwood. In 2000 he kidnapped the actor Rajkumar. For years the task force searched the forests of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and spent more than ₹100 crore. By 2004 Veerappan's gang had shrunk to four men, and his eyes were failing. He needed treatment outside the forest. Vijay Kumar's team spent ten months planning. Undercover officers got inside his circle. One of them offered to take him for eye treatment. On the night of 18 October 2004 Veerappan climbed into an ambulance at Papparapatti in Dharmapuri. Around 10.15 pm the driver stopped, saying the vehicle had broken down. The ambulance was surrounded by the Special Task Force. They asked him to surrender. Veerappan's men opened fire. Twenty minutes later Veerappan and three of his men were dead.