Court acquits 9 accused in Rajkumar abduction case

Chennai, Sep 25: All nine accused in Sandalwood matinee idol Dr. Rajkumar's abduction case were acquitted by Tamil Nadu's Gobichettipalayam additional magistrate court on Tuesday.

Additional Magistrate Mani said that the prosecution has failed to prove its charges against the accused.

The prosecution has not gathered enough evidence against the accused. Not an iota of evidence was produced to show that the accused were accomplices of Veerappan. The judge also took note of the fact that Rajkumar's family did not come before the court and depose during the trial.

In all 14 people were charged, including forest brigand Veerappan, in the Rajkumar abduction case. Ramesh, one of the accused, is absconding

Talavadi police registered a case against 14 persons - Veerappan, Sethukuli Govindan, Chandre Gowda, Mallu, Maran, Govindaraj alias Iniyan, Andril alias Ezhumalai, Selvam alias Sathya, Amirthalingam, Pasuvanna, Nagaraj, Puttusamy, Kalmandirama and Ramesh.

Veerappan and Sethukuzhi Govindan were killed in Police encounter in 2000.

Dr. Rajkumar abduction case:

On 30 July 2000, Veerappan kidnapped actor Rajkumar and three others from Dodda Gajanur, a village in Erode district near the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border where the film star was attending his housewarming ceremony. Rajkumar was held for 108 days and finally released without harm in November 2000. A police official later suggested that 200 million rupees had been paid by Karnataka government for his release.

On 18 October 2004, Veerappan and two of his associates were killed by the Tamil Nadu Special Task Force headed by K Vijay Kumar and N. K. Senthamarai Kannan Yadava.