India's most surreal hostage crisis ended with a suitably bizarre denouement last night when the jungle bandit Veerappan unexpectedly released his ageing movie star captive Rajkumar, with little to show for his efforts and amid claims that he had merely grown tired of the actor's company.
More than three months after marching him into the forest at gunpoint, the bandit set Rajkumar free late on Tuesday, despite the fact that none of his demands appear to have been met.
The move took India by surprise, provoked delirious scenes at the actor's home and drew thousands of fans on to the streets of his home city, Bangalore. He is expected to return there by helicopter later today.
After emerging from the Satyamangalam jungle, a dishevelled Rajkumar was taken to a safe house in nearby Bhavani, near Erode, in the state of Tamil Nadu, where he was checked by doctors and reunited with his family. "He is weak and emotionally drained but OK," one source said.
The family learned of his release in a phone call in the early hours of yesterday morning from a negotiating team which entered the forest to meet the bandit three days ago.
"The call came through at 12.30am. We were very very happy," B Raghunandan, a film director and friend of the family, said. "We immediately started partying. People were dancing and shouting. He has a very big family. Dr Rajkumar is in very good shape because of all the yoga he did in the jungle," he added.
Other family members gathered to celebrate again last night at the star's home which was decorated. Seasoned Veerappan watchers expressed bafflement at the timing of the release which came after India's supreme court had rejected his key demand - the release of 51 of his associates from prison.
The two states involved in trying to secure the actor's release, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, had earlier approved the demand. They were castigated by the court last month for their incompetence and told to come up with an alternative rescue plan.
Sources said that a very large ransom had been paid. The money appears to have come from Rajkumar's family and the Karnataka film industry. Intriguingly, the sources added that the bandit had also grown "fed up" with the matinee idol after 108 days in his company.
"After three months they were tired of each other. The supreme court ruling meant Veerappan knew there was no point in prolonging the agony. The longer he left it the more likely it was that the commandos would come in and get him," one said.
Veerappan eventually released his hostage, not to RR Gopal, the assiduous magazine editor who had trekked out to see him five times, but to an extreme Tamil nationalist politician and Tamil Tiger sympathiser, P Nedumaran - suggesting that the bandit's future lies in politics.
Mr Nedumaran, who made one previous attempt to free Rajkumar, had made it clear that this was his last mission. In the end he did not have to do any negotiating.
India's prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said he was delighted by the release. "It's marvellous he is out. These have been very anxious times. If anything had happened to Rajkumar, Karnataka would have burned," one source said.
Although a film loosely modelled on Veerappan's life, Jungle, is already playing in Indian cinemas, Bollywood directors were scrambling last night to be the first to make one based on the extraordinary Rajkumar saga.
Ever since Veerappan burst into Rajkumar's farmhouse in the Tamil Nadu village of Gajunur with his armed gang on July 30, India has been transfixed by the crisis. The actor, who suffers from high blood pressure and weak knees, was given an early indication that he could be away for some time when Veerappan - as he marched him out of the door - turned back and collected the star's reading glasses.
Since then things have got more surreal. Six weeks later 300 of Rajkumar's fans mounted a quixotic and unsuccessful attempt to penetrate the mountainous forest and rescue him. Two weeks later, one of three male relatives who was kidnapped by Veerappan at the same time managed to escape and hail a passing bus to freedom. On board he told passengers he had been attacked by a bear, fearing they would send him back into Veerappan's clutches.
Initial reports suggested that Rajkumar had been taken deep into the heart of the jungle, where Veerappan operates a series of well-hidden camps. In fact, for much of the time he was holed up close to the spot where he was seized.
When Veerappan last went on a kidnapping spree in 1997, he demanded an amnesty for the 138 murders he had carried out over a criminal career spanning two decades. His victims have included 32 policemen. He also asked that a film should be made of his life.
This time he asked for the statue of a Tamil poet to be erected in neighbouring Bangalore and demanded higher wages for Tamil tea plantation workers. Now the crisis is over, Veerappan is unlikely to emerge from the jungle where he has spent the last 15 years in hiding.
He is also wanted for slaughtering more than 3,000 elephants and presiding over a £15m smuggling empire in looted ivory and sandalwood. "We expect him to disappear for a while. But he is sure to be back," one source said last night.
