‘STF tortured, raped women during anti-Veerappan ops’

Former Karnataka DG&IGP of police, Shankar M Bidari’s troubles are not over. Skeletons from his anti-Veerappan operations days have returned to haunt him six years after the dreaded forest brigand was killed. Now, Veerappan’s wife Muthulakshmi has alleged that Bidari and his Special Task Force (STF) members had tortured and abused women, stolen their jewellery and blatantly violated human rights while pursuing her husband in the forests of Male Mahadeshwara (MM) Hills and Biligiri Ranganatha (BR) Hills in the early 1990s.

She alleged that Bidari had forcibly snatched her mangalasutra in 1993 when he was heading Karnataka STF which was formed to nab her husband.

Speaking to reporters on Friday afternoon, Muthulakshmi also alleged that some of the Karnataka STF officers had raped a few tribal women.

At least 15 women were tortured right in front of Bidari by his police officers to force them to reveal the whereabouts of Veerappan, she said, while adding: “‘Tiger’ Ashok Kumar, Mosale and Kumar Das were among some of the police officers who tortured people in the forest areas and violated human rights during operations against Veerappan.”

“I don’t want to tell lies by saying that Bidari raped women. I did not see any rape committed by Bidari. But, he violated human rights by allowing torture of women, including myself,” she said.

Bidari and his team collected nearly 2kg of gold jewellery from her and the other women when they arrested them. But, the jewellery was never returned, she said.

Referring to the Karnataka high court’s decision upholding the Central Administrative Tribunal’s order striking down Bidari’s appointment as DG&IGP of Karnataka, Muthulakshmi said: “The court delivered a good verdict. But I want a probe conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the human rights violations by Bidari and his men.”

She lamented her inability to record her statement before the Justice Sadashiva Commission which was constituted to probe human rights violation by police officials during the anti-Veerappan operations.

Bidari, on his part, denied Muthulakshmi’s allegations against him. He said some people, who had worked behind the scenes to remove him from the post of DG&IGP of Karnataka, were behind Muthulakshmi’s statements.

“Why was she quiet for 20 years when she had faced thousands of press conferences? I came to know that some people who have worked to remove me from DG&IGP’s post were trying to bring Muthulakshmi to Bangalore to address a press conference to make public the allegations against me. But, I will not be scared by these acts,” Bidari said.

He clarified that he had never arrested Muthulakshmi. “It was the Tamil Nadu police which arrested her. I met her for just five minutes in October, 2003. I had given her a banana and a glucose packet after I learnt that she had not eaten since morning. Later I sent her to Tamil Nadu with police from her state,” he said.