Veerappan slayer says bizman who helped hunt will remain anonymous

CHENNAI: Who is that? The question rang out after TOI reported on Friday how the Special Task Force used a contact, a businessman with Sri Lankan radical links, to trap and gun down the forest brigand on October 18, 2004.
K Vijay Kumar, who led the STF's Operation Cocoon, says the businessman's identity will remain a secret. In his upcoming book Veerappan: Chasing the Brigand, Kumar calls him Mr X. In an interview to TOI, Kumar describes him as a ghost, a cat, beyond anyone's grasp.Excerpts:
Everyone will now be searching for Mr X who Veerappan trusted for getting guns and a cataract surgery for his eye.
“All you now have is a ghost. If you start looking hard, you may see X around every corner. But I don't think the readers would go that far. He is the type who can shrink right under your gaze.He is a cat. A cat has nine lives.Mr X may have that many dimensions to his character, and the book alludes to just three.Like a part of the bandit's loot, he (Mr X) is still out there, beyond anyone's grasp.“
Your book says he was promised amnesty in return for help to trap Veerappan.How do you justify that?
The word `amnesty' is not used in the strict legal sense, for it is the President's and the governor's remit. Within certain bounds, `set a thief to catch a thief ' is kosher in intel. X was not a national crook. He was image-sensitive. We cashed in.
Some versions say Vee rappan was captured alive.Could he have been?
At subconscious level it was like he had hit us enough, and no more. Having said that, such missions can never be risk-proof; they boil down to cutting down losses and collateral. We did that.