The toll of death due to health issues is not stopping. Bilavendran, an aide to the brigand Veerappan, died at the KR Hospital in Mysuru on Wednesday night. He was 61 and was serving his term in jail for 27 years. The 61-year-old was one of four aides close to Veerappan who escaped the death penalty after the Supreme Court commuted their death sentence to life imprisonment. Mysuru jail superintendent Divyashree told a leading daily that Bilavendran was not well and was admitted to the hospital for the past week. A post-mortem will be conducted to determine the exact cause of death but health officials said he was not suffering from COVID-19.
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As he fell unconscious in jail, officials admitted him in the hospital, a report stated. Bilavendran, along with Simon, Madaiah and Gnanaprakash, was sentenced to death for his role in the 1993 Palar blasts on the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border in which they blew up a police vehicle killing 22 people. Another aide Selva Mary was arrested in February 2020. Police got wind of her location after Selva fired shots in the air in Matahalli village in Chamarajanagara district to ward off elephants who were about to enter her sugarcane farm.
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Simon died in 2019 and advocate Venugopal, who represented Veerappan's aides, has urged the state government to consider the release of two others - Madaiah and Gnanaprakash - imprisoned for life, as both are aged around 70. Veerappan was a bandit who was active for 36 years and was known for acts of sandalwood smuggling and kidnapping influential people including celebrated Kannada actor Rajkumar. He was killed in an encounter with security forces in 2004.