New Delhi, November 7: The Supreme Court today quashed the orders of the designated courts in Mysore and Chennai permitting the withdrawal of TADA charges against Veerappan's associates.The unanimous verdict of the bench, headed by Justice S P Bharucha, ruled out the conciliatory strategy adopted by the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu Governments to secure the release of film star Rajkumar who has been held hostage by Veerappan for over 100 days.The apex court, however, conceded that the 51 TADA accused in Karnataka, who are mostly tribals and include women and aged, might have grounds to challenge their prolonged prosecution and to seek bail. ``They shall be free to adopt proceedings in that regard, if so advised. Such proceedings shall be decided on their merits and nothing that we have said in this judgment shall stand in their way,'' it added.The three-judge bench gave two separate but concurring verdicts. The one delivered by Bharucha for himself and Justice D P Mohapatra listed out eight questions which the prosecution should have considered and answered before seeking the withdrawal of the TADA charges.Justice Y K Sabharwal said in his concurring judgment that the prosecution had also failed to consider the effect of Veerappan's secessionist activities and whether the authorities could have contained any public disturbance when they had time to prepare for such a contingency.Tracing the growth of the Veerappan menace, the court pulled up the goverments of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for not apprehending him for the last 10 years and allowing the outlaw to grow into a secessionist. Bharucha said: ``What causes us gravest disquiet is that when not so very long back, his gang had been considerably reduced, Veerappan was not pursued and apprehended and now he is operating in the forest along with secessionist Tamil elements. It seems to us certain that Veerappan will continue with his life of crime and very likely that those crimes will have anti-national objective.''The court also ``deprecated'' the failure of the Karnataka government to admit to the Mysore court that the purpose of seeking the withdrawal of the TADA charges was to allow the accused to be released on bail under the ordinary law.Bharucha said the withdrawal of the TADA charges and the release of the accused was in fact a ``package deal'' under which the Government did not oppose the bail applications of those against whom the TADA charges had been withdrawn. ``This showed the Government's complicity with the accused,'' he said, adding that it had ``misled'' the Mysore court while seeking the withdrawal of the TADA charges.``There can, in the circumstances, be little doubt that after their release on bail the accused respondents were not expected to attend the court to answer the remaining charges against them,'' the court observed.
