Bangalore, Oct 15: Karnataka government today said it is in touch with local JD(U) leader Mahadevaswamy to send a message through All India Radio to forest brigand Veerappan, in an apparent move to assure the bandit that it is working on mediation to secure the release of former minister H Nagappa.
"We are trying to send a message through Mahadevaswamy so that he (Veerappan) will also realise that government is responsive to his request (to send emissaries to him)," Karnataka home minister Mallikarjun Kharge told reporters today, a day after the eight-day deadline set by the brigand ended.
Veerappan has demanded in the third cassette sent to the family of Nagappa on October six that Tamil activist Kolathur Mani and Mahadevaswamy be sent as mediators to him within eight days, failing which he had threatened to harm the hostage.
Kharge said officials were in contact with Mahadevaswamy to send the message so that the legal hurdles faced by the government in sending Mani as an emissary could also be explained to Veerappan.
Mani, facing five cases on different counts, including supplying explosives to Veerappan, is in Bellary jail in Karnataka. The high court has posted his bail application for this week and he can go as an emissary only if he obtains bail. Bureau Report