TEHRAN Officials in southern India on Monday were hopeful of an imminent release of kidnapped movie star Rajkumar saying they had responded favorably to the demands of his captor, India's most-wanted outlaw, AFP reported.
"We are anxiously awaiting feedback from the official mediator R.R. Gopalan. It is my own gut feeling that Rajkumar will be released within 48 hours," Karnataka State Chief Minister S.M.
Krishna told reporters.
"It is a tricky matter," Krishna said, stressing that Rajkumar's abductor, the notorious bandit Veerappan, was "unpredictable" at best.
Krishna said he started moves to release 51 suspected associates of Veerappan from prison, in keeping with one of the bandit's 10 demands.
"I have today cleared the file pertaining to the cases and directed the police to make necessary arrangements for the bail to be granted to detinues lodged in Mysore jails," he said.
Veerappan abducted Rajkumar and three of his relatives more than a week ago, sparking violence by the actor's fans and fanning ethnic tensions.
Rajkumar, 74, belongs to the Kannadiga community, the dominant group in Karnataka. Veerappan, 53, is a Tamil.
Earlier, Krishna had issued a fresh and emotional appeal for the film star's release after the governments of Karnataka and neighboring Tamil Nadu State responded positively to a set of ransom demands.
"After you took Rajkumar away so suddenly, the whole state has been feeling a lot of pain," Krishna said, adding that the matinee idol had never "hurt or harmed anyone." Meanwhile, official sources in Tamil Nadu State Monday told AFP the provincial government had decided to free five jailed militants from prison, as demanded by Veerappan.
Two of the jailed militants belong to the Tamil National Liberation Army and the others are from the Tamil Nation Retrieval Force (TNRF), which was banned after the May 1991 assassination of former premier Rajiv Gandhi in Tamil Nadu.