Aide of forest brigand Veerappan dies in hospital

He has been identified as 66-year-old Moris Gownder Bilavendran.

Bilavendran was one of the four aides of Veerappan, who had escaped the noose after the Supreme Court in 2014 commuted their death penalty to life imprisonment.

Bilavendran was housed at the Mysuru Central Prison and hailed from Maartalli village in Hanur Taluk of Chamarajanagar District. He was admitted to KR Hospital after he was found in an unconscious state inside his prison cell.

His kin have come from Maartalli to take the body.

Brigand Koose Munisamy Veerappan, whom the Police claimed to have killed in an encounter on October 18, 2004, in a village near Dharmapuri in Tamil Nadu, had planned the Palar bomb blast that took place on April 9, 1993, in which 22 people, including five policemen, two forest guards and informers, were killed after Veerappan trapped them with landmines in the dense forests on the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border.

In the subsequent Court case, four were convicted as they were booked under TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act) . They were Moris Gownder Bilavendran, Anthoniappa Simon, Joseph Gnanaprakasam and Kolandaiyappa Mathaiyan (Meese Madaiah). Of them Simon passed away in jail.

They were sentenced to death and later the Supreme Court commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment as there was a delay in executing the death sentence. Mani from Maartalli village, a close relative of Bilavendran, was also an accused in the case, but he was released for want of evidence.

The accused had approached the President with mercy petition and was subsequently rejected.

However, they repeatedly approached the Supreme Court against the delay.

“Like the death sentence is passed lawfully, the execution of the sentence must also be in consonance with the constitutional mandate and not in violation of the constitutional principles,” the Supreme Court Bench had said on the inordinate delay in the execution of death sentences based on the appeal filed by the convicts.

The Palar Bomb Blast Case

The Special Task Force constituted to arrest Veerappan had a base in Palar near Male Mahadeshwara Hills.

On April 9, 1993, IPS officer K Gopalakrishnan left the Palar base along with a team of 41 members which included Police from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, forest officials, forest watchers and informers.

The team left in two vehicles, of which one was a bus carrying most of the team members, and a jeep carrying Gopalakrishnan who stood on the footboard of the jeep watching the road ahead. The Veerappan gang had planted IED (Improvised Explosive Device) landmines on the road in more than 14 places to obstruct the movement of convoy.

As the bus passed over the landmines, Simon and Madaiah allegedly detonated the gelatine sticks just outside the town of Surakkamaduvu, resulting in an explosion that threw the bus hundreds of feet away, killing 22 people. Over 30 personnel were injured. Not stopping at this, the brigand gang members then fired on the team from a vantage point in the forest.

Gopalakrishnan suffered severe injuries to his head and legs and underwent nine surgeries, returning to duty after 18 months and later retired as DIG in 2008. Notably, there was a campaign in Tamil Nadu against the death penalty awarded to the four accused. Later, the death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.