Vidya Pani, the daughter of slain sandalwood smuggler and the infamous bandit Veerappan, joined the Bharaiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday, 22 February, in Tamil Nadu’s Krishnanagar.
Party general secretary Muralidhar Rao and former Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan were present at the event.
Rani said, “I want to work for the poor and underprivileged irrespective of their caste and religion. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s schemes are for the people and I want to take them to the people,” reported ANI.
Besides Rani, the event saw as many as 1,000 members from other political parties join the BJP.
Veerappan was active in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. He gained notoriety through the murders of more than 120 people, the poaching of over 2,000 elephants, the smuggling of millions of dollars of sandawood and ivory. He also kidnapped politicians, like former minister H Nagappa and film actor Rajkumar, for ransom.
In the Operation Cocoon, launched by the Special Task Force of Tamil Nadu police was able to nab him after several efforts in 2004. He was shot dead in the operation on 18 October 2004, along with three of his associates, while four police officers were injured.
(With inputs from ANI, The Print, The Times of India)
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