Bangalore, December 8
In a gory end to the 106-day-old hostage crisis, the body of abducted JD (U) leader H Nagappa was today found in the Chengadi forests near the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border after forest brigand Veerappan sent an audio cassette tape washing his hands off his captive claiming he was injured in an encounter with the Tamil Nadu police.

After day-long confusion over whether the 66-year-old former minister was dead or alive, his body with multiple wounds and in a highly decomposed state was located by a senior police official in a jungle area in Chamarajanagar district, Karnataka Home Minister Mallikarjun Kharge told reporters ending the uncertainty over his fate.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa late tonight dismissed Veerappan’s claims and said the Tamil Nadu STF had no role to play “in this encounter” which took place 40 km inside Karnataka from the inter-state border. She also said the joint operation with Karnataka was called off at the latter’s request after Nagappa’s kidnapping.

A stunned Chief Minister S M Krishna immediately got in touch with Ms Jayalalithaa and the two states launched a joint operation to arrest Veerappan “dead or alive”. Mr Krishna, who is in Delhi, will reach Bangalore tomorrow morning.

The government top brass and officials swung into action after receiving a report that a sixth cassette had landed in Nagappa’s house near Kollegal from where he was kidnapped on the night of August 25.

In the cassette, Veerappan had said that Nagappa was no longer in his custody after an encounter between his gang and the Tamil Nadu police in which both he and Nagappa were injured.

However, Tamil Nadu Director-General of Police B P Nailwal rejected Veerappan’s claim and said his force had nothing to do with the death of Nagappa.

Meanwhile, Southern Railway tonight announced cancellation of train services between Mysore and Bangalore and another train between Chennai and Bangalore scheduled for tomorrow.

MYSORE: A 14-year-old boy was injured when the police opened fire on a mob which indulged in arson and violence in Kamagere in Kollegal taluk, the native place of Nagappa.

According to reports reaching police headquarters here, teargas shells were burst in Ramapura to disperse an agitated mob which indulged in violence and arson.

An office in Ramapura, three buses and a jeep were burnt by mobs, which also torched scores of small shops in Ajjipura, Hanchipura, Bandhahalli and Hanur in the taluk in the Chamarajanagar district.

A report from Coimbatore said a driver of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation bus was injured when miscreants pelted stones near Sathyamangalam in Tamil Nadu in protest against the killing.