The 51-year-old officer K. Vijay Kumar, Chief of the Special Task Force that felled Veerappan, attributes the success of the operation to his teammates.

In the past, the STF tried two strategies against Veerappan — head on confrontation and when that didn’t yield great results, it chipped away his support system and then reduced his gang to less than 10. In this last phase what exactly was your strategy?
We knew his left eye had a problem. Also there was a rift within the gang and he had started to feel like a threatened species and that was very good for us. The last two months, we intensified our intelligence and unfolded plots and sub-plots, making sure they did not mix up with each other. Then the break came as the support he was expecting for his eye treatment did not materialise forcing him to rely on a slightly outside source. Taking advantage of his desperation, we entered the picture at the right time since entering too early could have evoked suspicion. Once our man infiltrated and signalled that he had earned the trust of Veerappan, we put two people (Inspectors Velladurai and Kumaresan) on the job. We had information relayed from the village after constant surveillance.
Then we put only one man in perfect disguise for each road that they were likely to take, though we were sure that the road he finally took would be preferred as it was the shortest. And also because the vehicle was commanded by our man he too made sure that no alternate route was taken at the last minute.
Our aim was to get Veerappan live — that was our first priority. If I cannot then get him dead. Surrendering would have been ideal but knowing he was a maverick he chose the other way.

What would have been the advantage if you had got Veerappan alive?
If we had him alive he would have to go through the process of law as a common criminal. He would have a lot of explaining to do. All his big image would have been demystified. Subjecting him to the process of law would have been the correct thing as every citizen would have learnt that you cannot get away after doing what he did.

Why was infiltration possible only now and not earlier?
It was planned earlier and attempts were made but couldn’t be brought to a successful conclusion for some reasons. This time, he was very desperate for manpower. So, before Velladurai made a contact to bring him out, there was another person who prepared Veerappan and his group to accept Velladurai.

During all these months of planning, there would have been very little activity on the Veerappan front. So, how did you keep up the morale of your men and how did you remain motivated?
Training boosts the morale, so they were constantly on training to sharpen their tactics. I used to give them exercises to stay sharp. For example, in the mad minute routine, they had to be ready with all their stuff and weapons in one minute for combat.
As for me, I used to read books especially on war, insurgencies and international relations. Yoga and prayers of course. When I am not reading I used to think of only Veerappan. Being one man centric can also be bugging but I kept asking the same questions that public ask us — why we’re unable to get this guy. I maintained total secrecy of the intelligence gathering not even giving hope to my superior officers.
I must mention here that the government also played a major role. And all along, the CM was very confident that we would get him this time.

Don’t you feel disturbed when human rights activists say that you use encounters to eliminate such people?
I have a very open mind on human rights. Many of the activists are really genuine people. But a few of them take up wrong issues and trash the good activists as well. You do feel wounded but that is all part of the game. If I get stuck in sentiment, I can’t do my job.

So now, what happens to all the millions he has stashed away, his supporters, financiers etc?
That is not part of my mandate. Veerappan is my mandate and other appropriate authorities will have to investigate that.

Finally, how do you plan to cope with the image of a supercop?
(Laughs heartily) I want to feel like a normal cop. In fact, inspectors and people in other ranks are doing much more, so many things day in day out. So, I do not like or want to feel very comfortable with such descriptions.



Source.........HT