Madikeri: “It is sad to hear that the sacrifice of hundreds of Kodava who helped capture the elephant poacher and dacoit Veerappan has not been recorded in any format,” said retired DGP Dr D V Guruprasad.
He was addressing the gathering at the welfare association of retired police personnel on Saturday, October 12. On the same occasion, two books – “Danta Chora Veerappan” written by former advisor to the Governor of Kashmir K Vijaykumar and “Goodacharya Dinagalu” written by Dr Guruprasad – were also released.
“The first person to nab Veerappan was K A Somanna from Somwarpet. He was on duty in Kollegal and arrested both Veerappan and his father, Koosu Madaiah. At that point in time Veerappan was terribly frightened of Somanna, a fact which many are not aware,” he continued.
“Had Eerappa of the Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) gunned down Veerappan, DCP Srinivas and other police personnel would not have died at his hands. It was due to the bravery of Mandappa from Kodagu that Veerappan’s victims, Harikrishna and Shakeel Ahmed’s bodies were recovered. The people of Kodagu must register all these facts,” he advised.
“In my book ‘Goodacharya Dinaglu’, I have written about how my intelligence team and I set the operations to capture Veerappan, during the time of former chief ministers R Gundu Rao, S M Krishna and Dharam Singh,” he added.
Superintendent of Police Dr Suman D Pannekar said, “It seems like a lot of retired police personnel have developed health issues. Special care must be taken for this and they must enroll in health schemes specially designed for them. In the welfare association there are 800 members, out of which only 200 have enrolled in health–related schemes. I request the rest to enroll in the same.”
On the occasion, Soujanya and Krupa, the talented children of civil police staff, were each given a cash prize of Rs 5000 in memory of P K Acharya‘s mother (who hailed from Udupi).
Welfare association former president M A Appaiah, current president A K Suresh, President Medal awardee K P Parashiva and others were present.
