प्लॉट

After Srinivas's death, the STF decided to kill Veerappan and his gang members on sight. An entire army of policemen from Karnataka and Tamilnadu was assembled to nab Veerappan dead or alive.

Veerappan did not flee, and met his pursuers head on. In 1992, the state governments of the 2 states agreed to provide all resources to end the Veerappan menace. Best police officers from Karnataka police were assigned to the STF, including Shakeel Ahmed and Chief of Police Harikrishna.

Goverment declared a Rs 20 Lakhs bounty for Veerappan. With this, one key gang member Gurunath Achari was caught and killed. Gurunath was in charge of weapons. Veerappan retaliated by attacking a police station at Ramapura and killing 7 policemen. Around the same time, Veerappan's 2nd son was born.

Muthu and Veerappan were still hiding in the jungles and walking 40 to 50 kilometers everyday. Veerappan took refuge in the village of Nallur. When the police entered, the villagers did not cooperate and in response, the STF burned down the entire village. Shakeel Ahmed was in charge of the Nallur operation. Veerappan retaliated by killing Harikrishna and Shakeel Ahmed in a carefully planned encounter, when they were travelling through the jungle without security.

The killings turned the public opinion against Veerappan and there were protests in Mysore against him. Veerappan was switching between Karnataka and Tamilnadu to evade the police. The police of the 2 states started to coordinate their actions. New policemen stepped up to take the place of those who were gunned down by Veerappan. Tamilnadu police had Rambo Gopalakrishnan, who formed an unit called the Jungle Patrol to hunt for Veerappan. Rambo was tough with the people of the jungle. He tortured them for information on Veerappan. Veerappan challenges Rambo to face him directly. Rambo takes 2 vehicles full of policemen to encounter Veerappan but is ambushed himself. Veerappan planted bombs on the road to Palar (in Mysore district of Karnataka) and exploded them, just as the vehicles passed over. 22 policemen died. Rambo Gopalakrishnan survived the attack. 25 Kgs of explosives were used.

3 years since STF was formed, they were nowhere close to nabbing Veerappan. The Tamilnadu and Karnataka STFs were merged into a joint Special Task Force. Veerappan decides to change his public image and tell his own story, for which he gave access to photojournalist Sivasubramaniam. Siva met Veerappan in the jungle and was allowed to take photos. This was the first time that Veerappan's entire team was photographed and the STF was able to find everything about them, their family and how they were supplied. This was Veerappan's biggest mistake.

Shankar Mahadev Bidari joined the STF from the Karnataka side. Shankar arrested everybody connected to Veerappan's gang. Hundreds of people were taken into custody and tortured. He questioned every person buying even a kilo of rice. Shankar made inmates drink urine and disrobed women, all to get information on Veerappan. When Veerappan ambushed a police convoy, Shankar shot 8 inmates in cold blood.

STF decided that their strategy was not working and adopted anti-guerrilla tactics. The entire Modus Operandi changed to an intelligence-based operation executed by commandos living in the forest and striking at the right time and the right place. Mohan Navas was the commando who started the commando operations. He started putting his informers in the villages and kept track of Veerappan's movements. Veerappan took refuge in the forest around Minchugulli village in Karnataka. When Navas got the information, he planned a joint operation with BSF, Karnataka STF and Tamilnadu STF. 200 policemen descended on Veerappan's camp. Veerappan escaped, but the STF got a glimpse into how Veerappan was living a life in the jungle. He was very well supplied and had access to many modern amenities. Muthu was captured.

Veerappan had 157 gang members, but most of them were found and shot one by one. Veerappan could not find anyone. His gang was reduced to 6 members. With Muthu's capture, Veerappan became even more ferocious.

By 1996, Veerappan was a hardened criminal. Veerappan engaged Siva to give video interviews that were telecast all over the country. The interviews became a massive success. Veerappan started telling the people how politics should be run.