Did the Special Task Force hunting for Veerappan encounter the brigand in Kerala's forests? Did the STF catch Tamil National Liberation Army chief Senguttuvan Maran? Senior Associate Editor George Iype, who spent some days with the Kerala police in their quest for India's most wanted, finds out.

The Tamil Nadu Special Task Force is making waves as the operation to nab the country's most infamous outlaw continues in the Kerala and Tamil Nadu forests. But Karnataka STF officers and Kerala police investigators believe the Tamil Nadu police neither encountered Veerappan nor did they catch Maran.

What then is the truth?

Kerala police sources said Maran surrendered before the Tamil Nadu STF team on February 2 under a deal struck by Tamil nationalist leader P Nedumaran and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government. But the Tamil Nadu police announced Maran's arrest only on Thursday, February 15, in Coimbatore, hours before Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee arrived in the city to inaugurate the Swadeshi trade fair.

"The Tamil Nadu STF is calling the shots, but the Karnataka STF is kept in the dark about what is happening in the forests here. It is a politically motivated operation and Tamil Nadu is doing it superbly," commented a senior Kerala police officer in charge of the Veerappan operation in the Walayar forests.

The officer claims the much-publicised STF-Veerappan 'encounter' and Maran's arrest were deftly masterminded by the Tamil Nadu government to improve its image vis-à-vis Veerappan.

There are a number of contradictions, he said, in the Tamil Nadu police's accounts of the encounter with Veerappan and Maran's arrest.

As per the Tamil Nadu STF's version, at 1 pm on February 2, a 13-member police team combing the Walayar forests spotted Veerappan and 10 members of his gang. Veerappan is eating a meal while the others stand besides him. The brigand and his gang notice the STF troops, but since they are in mufti, Veerappan thinks they are local villagers. One gang member, however. sees a gun with the STF personnel and starts firing at the police posse.

"It was a very close encounter. After a member of Veerappan's gang fired at the STF, they retaliated with their AK-47s. Realising the danger, all the gang members, including Veerappan, fled and disappeared in the thick forest." This was the STF-Veerappan encounter, as described by Tamil Nadu Director General of Police R Rajagopalan.

Kerala police officers claim the Tamil Nadu police masterminded the encounter. "We feel the encounter with Veerappan did not occur. Maran's surrender must have taken place that day," a senior Kerala officer said.

According to him there are many loopholes in the supposed encounter:

One: The STF said they spotted Veerappan and his gang 20 metres away. Then they changed track and said the dacoit was seen some 100 metres away.

Two: The STF said there was an exchange of fire. But there were no signs of such an exchange when the Kerala police reached the spot at Chemmantimala in the Walayar forests. The Kerala police could not recover any cartridges or bullets.

Three: When the Kerala police pointed out that there was no sign of an encounter, the Tamil Nadu STF got panicky. Two days later, they produced 10 cartridges and four bullets, claiming that they were recovered from the site of the encounter.

Four: After the exchange of fire at close quarters, the Kerala police say it is astonishing no one was hurt in the encounter.

Kerala police teams, who extensively combed the site, spot laugh off the STF-Veerappan 'encounter'. "It is a steep hilly area in the forest. Veerappan and the gang could not have escaped because the tree under which they were said to be sitting is on the edge of a huge, deep pit covered with bushes. They could have never run forward," says a Kerala investigator.

What then are the facts as advanced by the Kerala police?

One: The Tamil Nadu STF did not encounter Veerappan. Maran surrendered before the STF under the deal struck between Nedumaran and the Tamil Nadu government.

Two: The STF combing the Walayar forests spotted a number of ganja traders whom they mistook as Veerappan's associates.

Three: Kerala police intelligence teams allege that a number of STF cadres from Tamil Nadu are "friends" of Veerappan and the Tamil militants and suspect complicity between the brigand and some policemen.

Four: Why did the STF only arrest Maran? It is impossible, the Kerala police say, for Maran to walk alone in the forests, waiting for the STF to catch him.

If it was a fake encounter and a false arrest, what could be the reason?

For the last two months, AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalitha has alleged that Veerappan fled to Jaffna in Sri Lanka after Kannada superstar Dr Rajakumar's release from his custody. The DMK government facilitated Veerappan's escape, she charged.

Many believe it was to ward off Jayalalitha's allegations on the eve of the assembly election that the Tamil Nadu police made up the encounter. "With this incident, the rumour about Veerappan fleeing to Jaffna has been proved wrong," Tamil Nadu DGP Rajagopalan told a press conference the day after the encounter.

"It is all political," says a senior police officer from Kerala. "Jayalalaitha alleged that the DMK government helped Veerappan to escape to Jaffna. So the encounter seems to be an artificial one to prove that Veerappan is still in the jungles, and not in Sri Lanka."

Veerappan may or may not fall into the STF trap now that Maran has deserted him. But the lack of coordination between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu STF officers may be cause for concern. Soon after the 'encounter,' the Tamil Nadu DGP addressed a press conference without informing H T Sangliana, head of the Karnataka Special Task Force, about the incident.

On Thursday, when Maran's arrest was announced, Sangaliana curtly commented: "I do not know anything about that."

To make matters worse, the Tamil Nadu police took into custody eight gunny bags that the Kerala police had seized from the site of the 'encounter' on February 2 in the Walayar forests. The TN police returned the material in the bags to the Kerala police on Wednesday, February 14, 12 days later, to be submitted in the Palakkad district court.

Missing from the gunny bags are two diaries, including the digital one, belonging to Veerappan and Maran.

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