in his own words

Walter Dawaram was the the former Deputy General of Police for Tamil Nadu who led the Special Task Force (STF) to capture Veerappan from 1993-95. Although he claimed to have reduced the size of the forest bandit's gang from 150 to 5 during those years, he also became a flash point for claims of gross human rights violations perpetrated against villagers living in the mountains and forests where Veerappan roamed.

Here are a few choice responses that he gave in an interview with The Week Magazine back in March 2001.

Q. A tribal woman has leveled rape charges against you.
It is absolutely preposterous. Vested interest have set the poor tribals by telling them they will get hefty compensations. Anyway, these tribals are filthy and I never used to go anywhere near them during inquiries.

Q. Don't these allegations [of gross human rights violations] bother you?
I had 12 cases against me in the Supreme Court in the Naxalite operations [another police mission, several years prior]. It will be the same here, too. Sexual molestation is the easiest allegation to make and the most difficult to prove.

Q. But there are no allegations against the present STF.
I don't know how serious the present STF is about capturing Veerappan. We had about 50 encounters with Veerappan's gang . He shouldn't be let free. He has murdered 119 perons including 32 police officers and 10 forest officials. Our police are capable. I am willing to lead the STF into the forests again.