Forest brigand Veerappan’s nemesis, Shankar Bidari, inspires doctoral thesis

BENGALURU: The nemesis of the dreaded Veerappan gang, police officer Shankar M Bidari, has now inspired a doctoral thesis.  The former DGP and Police Commissioner is much remembered for his anti-Veerappan operation and has inspired a scholar to do a study on ‘Karnataka State Police Organization and Administration: Shankar M Bidari’s contribution, a study’ for his doctoral dissertation from Mysuru University.

The study, which was completed after three and a half years, was accepted and a PhD was awarded to the scholar, Naveen Kumar MB. Bidari joined the IPS in 1978 and served for 34 years till his retirement in 2012.  “While it is true that no police officer here has inspired a PhD thesis until now in Karnataka, what is interesting is that even years after he retired, Bidari’s brave and proactive policing continues to inspire. That a scholar has taken years to study Bidari’s unsurpassed contribution to policing is heartening,’’ said another celebrated police officer, DCP (retd) B M Poonacha, who had worked with Bidari’s team in the MM Hills.

Bidari is best known for demolishing the dreaded brigand Veerappan gang and bringing down the gang numbers from 200 to just five men.Bidari handled among the most difficult assignments during his career and is remembered for keeping Ballari free from communal incidents as SP when the Babri Masjid was brought down and most of Karnataka’s districts reported massive communal flareups.
He was among the most highly decorated officer and has been awarded the gallantry medal twice which again is a historical first.