The Hunt For Veerappan- The Netflix Docuseries Of 20 Years Long Manhunt

The hunt for Veerappan leaves you with many important questions to reflect on. This engaging Netflix docuseries paints the picture of a forest brigade that unfolds the shocking story of many politicians and bureaucrats. It’s time to unwrap the story of a 20-year-long manhunt that still gives cold creeps even though it’s been more than 3 decades. 

Highlight: 

• The Hunt for Veerappan is currently streaming on Netflix. 
• The hunt for Veerappan IMDB is 8.4.
• Veerappan is a domestic forest terrorist, who was active with crimes for 36 years in the woods of South India. 
• This Netflix Docuseries unfolds the story of Second Dawood Of India. 

• The Hunt for Veerappan story Is about ‘Operation Cocoon’ started by the Karnataka Special task force to catch this forest bandit. 
• Operation cocoon started in the year 1991 was finally ended in 2004 followingOperation cocoon

Koose Munisamy Veerappan Life History, Family, Criminal History

Better known as Veerappan, he was born on 18 January 1952 in Gopinatham, Madras. He is an Indian bandit who ruled the forest of Tamilnadu and Karnataka for 36 long years. Performed mass killings of people, cops, and animals, He was also a vast supplier of Sandalwood and elephants. Smuggled around 16 crore worth ivory killing 2000 plus elephants and 65 metric tons of sandalwood gaining immense profit actively through the year 1962-2002.

In the year 1990, he got married to Muthulakshmi and has two daughters with her named Vidya Rani and Prabha. Both of his daughters spent their childhood at their nani’s place whereas Muthulakshmi and Veerappan spent their lives in the forest hiding. 

At a very early stage, he got into criminal activities that started from the smuggling of ivory and Sandalwood itself. At the very tender age of 17, he committed his first murder and since then the rule of Veerappan saw no end for the next 36 years. In the year 1987, The Taluka officer became his next target. The Karnataka Special Task Force became very much active after he managed to kill the IFS officer Srinivas in the year 1991. The newly appointed task officer became his next prey in August 1992.

Leading many of the blasts, and killings, his next big move left everyone in surprise when Veerappan kidnapped Rajkumar, a cinema actor in the year 2000. Nagappa who was a Minister of Karnataka was also made hostage by him in the same timeline and he demanded a heavy amount for their release. 

Ram Gopal Varma Movie Veerappan (2016)- Vicious & Brutal 

The latest documentary on Netflix, ‘The Hunt for Veerappan’ is the second effort to bring out the story of this Indian Bandit. Currently available on Hotstar Veerappan movie is a 2016 released film directed by Ram Gopal Varma. 

This 125 minutes movie is inspired by Veerappan story but has its own fictional element to make it entertainment worthy. Covering up the important events of the ‘operation cocoon‘ it has fictional characters and setups. Juxtapositioning this documentary and movie, the later provides a more clear approach in a real way rather than putting its own flavor to captivate the audience. The poster of this film dazzles attention as it says “It took 10 years to kill Osama Bin Laden but it took 20 to kill Veerappan”.

The Hunt For Veerappan- A History Of An Indian Bandit

Directed by Selvamani Selvaraj, it’s a non-fictional documentary that does not restrict itself from reality. Released in 6 languages, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, and English, the docuseries is divided into 4 chapters that map the journey of Robinhood Of India. Let us have a close look out at each phase of the dreaded Indian Bandit. 

The Hunt For Veerappan Chapter 1- The Forest King

Netflix docuseries starts with stunning landscapes and befitting reenactments. The docuseries opens with a miserable crime scene that establishes the Veerappan story expeditiously. The documentary opens encapsulating the interview of all the important people who were directly or indirectly part of the chain that led to the hunt of this forest king. During the ‘operation cocoon’ which was formed to catch forest brigand Veerappan every important event was covered very promptly by the makers. A

The events are covered from the year 1990 when forest King Veerappan who was 39 at that time got married to Muthulakshmi who was 15 years of age. We hear her talking about her husband with pride in her eyes which becomes clear as she goes ahead narrating her short love story of them courting. Muthulakshmi further adds that she was greatly attracted to her husband’s mustache and fearless personality. 

We then get introduced to Sunaad who was an investigation journalist then and came to Gopinatham(Veerappan’s hometown) to find some leads, The Hunt for him was raising as Veerappan used to kill elephants in Mahalingam and even smuggled Chandan in large quantity making a huge profit.

The maker then introduced a bit about his childhood which was full of poverty and because of that, he was charitable and sympathetic for the people of the jungle. When the police force was in search of him they even acquired 65 metric tons of sandalwood which was one of the largest confiscations of that time. The villagers were also inclined toward him and even attacked the cops who came to search for this forest explorer.

This event eventually led to the creation of the Karnataka Special Task Force and from that point of time everything started like a rat chase. A team led by Officer Srinivas started living in Gopinatham and as a part of his strategy came close to the villagers to find some evidently leads. Thereafter they came to know that he is hidden in BodhMalai. This was the time when Muthlaksmi was 8 months pregnant, though she managed to escape but 20 members of his gang surrendered to Srinivas in Bodhmalai. 

Veerappan’s wife delivered a baby girl and after her delivery, she went back in the jungle to live with her husband leaving her baby behind at the maternal place. Srinivas managed 20 surrender’s hence he had full support while he also used Mariyamma(Veerappan’s sister). As a part of the strategy, he started coming close to her but later to that she consumed poison out of fear. Srinivas then caught Arjunan(Veerappan’s brother) who convinced Veerappan to surrender to which he agreed but with the condition that he wants to meet the officer beforehand. On this condition when Srinivas went to meet Veerapan he was shot dead. 

The Hunt For Veerappan Chapter 2- The BloodBath

This Indian documentary then moved to its next chapter where the police force was in great outrage after losing the brave officer Srinivas. It was the year 1992 and the entire government supported the police force to catch Veerappan. Officer Shakil Ahmed and Mr. Harikrishna took charge of the leading officer.

The government kept a 20 lakh reward on whoever caught him. The Special Task Force managed to catch Gurunath Achari who was one of the loyal veerappan gang. The newly appointed officer Shakeel was very fearless and tortuous towards villagers, he even went to extreme lengths in order to get the mouths of villages opened but was unsuccessful. It was now even tougher to catch him as he used to commit a crime in Karnataka and hides in Tamilnadu. This Officer eventually came as a target of the forest king, as a consequence, his car exploded by planting a bomb. 

Till then his search was going on taking a black and white picture and nobody had seen him by then in person. Shiva Subramanyam (photojournalist) went on to capture his portrait in the forest and as soon as Veerappan came to know about this, he himself called him giving his best possible shot. The pictures were all around the newspapers the other day which led to the investigation in collaboration with the Intelligence Bureau. 

The STF was now joined by Shankar Mahadev Bidri who made many arrests, and tortured people, rigorously, the police started behaving like bandits and started thinking of a tough methodology.

On the other hand, Veerappan started increasing his gang but finally, in the forest of Minchugli, a raid happened and police arrested Muthulakshmi. His gang members were also encountered at a very large scale but unfortunately, Veerappan was still not found. Shankar Bidri then started questioning Veerappan’s wife and all these made him even stronger because now he had no fear of losing something. Hence proceeding to his next strategy Veerappan started giving interviews to the journalists, where he took the name of many politicians and bureaucrats who were involved illegally in many of the supply chains. 

The Hunt For Veerappan Chapter 3- The Revolutionary

Karnataka Police was very rude towards Veerappan’s wife. They gave electric shocks to her genitals and broke both of her knees, torturing her every minute. When Tamil Nadu Police came to know about her arrest they sent their two officers for rescue but on the condition that she will give a particular statement in the court. After her acquittal from Karnataka Police, she decided to live with her daughter. 

On the other hand, Veerappan’s mind was now on a different track. There was no news of him for 2 years and it clearly felt like he was planning something big. Tamilnadu people favored him and the liberation army fetched their support to the bandit. He was totally towards a revolutionary idealism by then and in the year 2000 Veerappan entered the house of actor Rajkumar and took him hostage including his three associates. The Karnataka Government along with NSG planned to do a surgical strike to save the actor but due to high risk they opted not to. 

A mutual talk was then planned between the forest bandit and a journalist sent by the government where Veerappan kept 11 conditions to leave Rajkumar. His demands were moreover in client towards Tamil people. Among the 11 kept conditions one of the conditions that he abided was releasing the innocent Tamil people from jail who are inside Karnataka jail.

The government even agreed to this but a twist came when Shakil Ahmed’s father filed an appeal in Supreme Court that the way the government is waiving off TADA from the people in jail to get Rajkumar released from trap is illegal. Therefore the court gave a stay order on the same. Veerappan, out of anger, therefore wanted to kill the hostages but he did not. 

Amidst all these, Muthulakshmi was in Tamilnadu jail for 8 years and was also disappointed because her husband never reached out to her during that time. Finally, Veerappan came to meet his family and after his daughter came and sat in his lap calling her ‘Abba’, the brutal mind got a transformation. He changed his mind and wanted to live with his family like a normal person now. Finally he released Rajkumar and the trapped hostages. 

Though the Special Task Force and the government were tired of Veerappan by then and they wanted him dead or alive. 

The Hunt For Veerappan Chapter 4- The Way Out

One of the gang members of Veerappan, Ambuj says- ” Veerappan often used to say the forest is my home and will never betray me, I will be here till my last breath.”

After the release of actor Rajkumar, Veerappan sent an audio cassette to his wife where he asked her to leave for Coimbatore as he wanted to meet the family but currently, the place where they lived was not safe. Muthulakshmi then took both of her daughters and left for her next city where she lived with the girl Priya, hiding her identity. 

Veerappan’s wife became close to Priya and told her everything but The Coimbatore girl (code name given to priya ) was actually an informer of Senthamari Kanan who was in Tamil Nadu Special Task Force. Tamilnadu police wanted to take Veerappan out of the forest anyhow and because of that they already prepared Priya to convince Muthulakhmi to call Veerappan to make her feel safe. Very soon Muthulakshmi got her doubts raised and sent her husband back when he was a few miles away. 

A trader who used to meet the bandit decided to tell the Tamil Nadu Police when he got feared for his life. The police force supported him and used him as a channel. Veerappan meanwhile had to undergo surgery because he was suffering from a major cataract and on the other hand, he was looking for a gun dealer because his weapons were destroyed majorly.

The trader who was now a police informer informed the Tamilnadu police about the same and then the real plan started, where a person was fabricated as a gun dealer and sent to supply arms to the bandit and also managed to take him out of the forest as an assurance to make him reach Sri Lanka. 

Everyone was ready to fire, the STF team was acknowledging the moment of the van in which Veerappan was seated. The ‘operation cocoon’ was towards its end and Veerappan was trapped finally and shot dead at once. K Vijay Kumar who was the lead at that point of time was celebrated all over, Muthulakshmi on the other hand wanted Veerappan’s body to cremate with her own ritual, the 20 years long Manhunt was finally over. 

Though there were many questions in the people’s minds, why was the van sealed soon after the encounter? Why wasn’t the full body of Veerappan shown to anyone? Why was his mustache trimmed half? Anyways it was a big day in the history of the Tamil Nadu Special Task Force and that’s all that mattered. 

Conclusion

Veerapan death was a sigh of relief for Karnataka and Tamil Nadu forces. The encounter took place in Papparapatti on 18 October 2004. K Vijay Kumar(IPS) shot him dead bringing the end to the Veerappan story. 

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