Nagappa's family critical of police

KAMAGERE, Kollegal taluk: There''s a million-dollar question intriguing the minds of former minister H. Nagappa''s family and well-wishers: What prevented the police from combing areas in and around the village even after they were immediately informed about the kidnap on Sunday?
Not only politicians and family members, even villagers who gathered at Nagappa''s house immediately after the incident, accuse the police of not making any attempt to pin down the gang.Veerappan''s men were roaming in a 5-km radius of Kamagere village for at least two hours after the abduction.
The family informed the Hanur police of the kidnap at 9.50 pm. A farm labourer Shivarudrappa, handed over the brigand''s audio cassette to Nagappa''s servant. Shivarudrappa informed the police that the gang was spotted in the south-west direction towards Lokkanahalli road.
The story does not end here. As Veerappan and his associates forced a bus to stop near Lokkanahalli and told the 45 passengers to get down, a couple of them ran behind the bus for 1.5 km to reach the spot where the brigand forced the driver to stop on seeing a police jeep, and escaped with his men.
When the waiting police showed no curiosity to inquire why the bus was abruptly stopped and passengers were running behind, the passengers and the bus driver tried their best to convince the police personnel that the brigand''s gang was nearby.
Recalls a passenger, Mahadev from Kunnur: ``We were asked to remain there till further orders.''''
Meanwhile, some of Nagappa''s supporters and party members fromKamagere took a jeep to reach the Gundal Dam guest house, headquarters of the STF. According to JD(U) worker Mahadevswamy, the officer on duty was curt and said: ``We cannot move from here till our officers ask us to do so.''''