Krishna calls emergency Cabinet meeting

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, SEPT. 3. The Karnataka Cabinet is holding an emergency meeting here on Monday morning to discuss the situation arising out of the Supreme Court order against the release of the associates of the forest brigand, Veerappan, detained under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act.

The Chief Minister, Mr. S.M. Krishna, has also convened a meeting of the floor leaders of various political parties for tomorrow afternoon. The Cabinet, which generally meets on Thursdays, is meeting on Monday in view of the developments regarding the Rajkumar abduction crisis.

The only ray of hope for the Government on the legal front now is to move the Chief Justice of India for an early hearing of the special leave petition filed by Mr. Abdul Karim, a retired police officer of Mysore, against the release of the TADA detenus. Mr. Karim's son, sub-inspector Shakeel Ahmed, was killed by Veerappan's gang in 1992.

The three-judge Supreme Court Bench, which continued the interim order of August 29 against the release of the detenus, has said that it was open to the State (Karnataka) to move the court with regard to the release (other than withdrawal of prosecution) of the women detenus.

Opposition flak

Meanwhile, the attitude of the Opposition parties is hardening. The Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Mr. Jagadish Shettar, has criticised the Government over the stand it took before the Supreme Court in justification of the release of the detenus, namely the law and order problem in the State.

Though the Cabinet has remained united on the issue, some of the Congress(I) leaders are known to be sore with the way the crisis is being handled. One of them, the former Chief Minister, Mr. S. Bangarappa, MP, is said to have been pleading from the very beginning of the abduction for granting pardon to Veerappan in return for the release of Mr. Rajkumar and three others. Mr. Bangarappa is a close relative of Mr. Rajkumar.

PTI reports:

The high-powered committee, constituted by the Government to manage the Rajkumar hostage crisis, met here this evening and took stock of the situation. The meeting, chaired by the Chief Minister, was attended among others by the Home Minister. Mr. Mallikarjun Kharge, and the Director-General of Police, Mr. C. Dinakar.

The DGP today neither confirmed nor denied reports that he had advised the Government against dropping charges against suspected associates of Veerappan. ``I don't want to comment on it,'' he said on reports that he had written a letter to Home Secretary, Mr. M.B. Prakash, expressing opposition in this regard. Mr. Dinakar reportedly conveyed that his conscience does not allow him to be party to the dropping of charges against the suspected associates of Veerappan.

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