Police and locals at the spot where Veerappan was shot dead on Oct. 18

Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu : Veerappan, India’s most wanted and most elusive brigand who murdered with impunity, was finally shot dead by elite commandos late on Oct. 18.

Wanted for some 120 murders since 1969, Koosai Munisamy Veerappan Gounder, made famous by his trademark handlebar moustache, carried a Rs. 30 million ($652,173) reward on his head. He was additionally wanted for smuggling of ivory and sandalwood –– he killed over a 100 elephants for their tusks, and laid waste large swathes of sandalwood forests on the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border that was his stronghold.

Veerappan with his trademark moustache. (Photos: AFP)

Using undercover agents and a meticulously laid out network of informants, commandos of the Special Task Force (STF) –– set up to nab him as far back as 1990 –– lured the 50-something into taking a van ride in a forested region where policemen ambushed him.

STF personnel in civilian clothes, hiding along both sides of a jungle track halted the van, supposedly an ambulance, at 10.50 p.m. after being tipped off about his movements and asked him to surrender. But Veerappand fire.

In no time, Veerappan, who was not wearing his usual battle fatigues and had trimmed his moustache apparently to hide his identity, lay dead along with three of his hardcore associates, Sethukuli Govindan, Chandra Gowda and Govindan. Veerappan took bullets in the head and an eye.

The STF seized two AK-47 rifles, a 12 bore shotgun and a 7.62 self-loading rifle, besides cash and three grenades, from the dead men.

The killing sparked celebrations in STF camps in the area, with its personnel bursting firecrackers and lighting colorful flares, brightening the forest sky well before dawn.

“This is a Diwali gift for the people of Tamil Nadu and the families of Veerappan’s victims,” said an STF officer. Both Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa and DMK chief M. Karunanidhi hailed his death, as did former deputy prime minister L.K. Advani.

The deaths mark the end of a man who at one time virtually ruled a sprawling 4,000-square mile thickly forested region where he killed men in cold blood, murdered elephants for their ivory and cut sandalwood trees for smuggling, building a vast criminal empire that had no parallel.

Although his first murder was reportedly committed in 1969, his killing spree began in right earnest in July 1987 when he abducted and killed a forest officer of Tamil Nadu. Two years later he murdered five men of a rival gang.

Veerappan’s terror reign took firm roots when he killed and mutilated three Tamil Nadu forest personnel in August 1989 and shot dead a Tamil Nadu sub-inspector and a head constable the next January.

Veerappan’s heartless methods were on full display when he lured R. Srinivas, a senior forest official who he blamed for his sister’s death, into his lair and personally beheaded him. This was in November 1990. Then in August 1992, he trapped STF Superintendent of Police Hari Krishna, tied him with grenades and blew him up along with five other policemen.

Veerappan, who had reportedly developed links with the Tamil rebels of Sri Lanka, earned nationwide notoriety when he kidnapped Karnataka film icon Rajkumar in 2000, releasing him after 107 days, allegedly on being paid Rs. 100 million in ransom.

In 2002, he abducted and later killed Karnataka politician H. Nagappa.