A team of 155 forest personnel, 108 policemen and six revenue officials entered the Tribal-dominated Vachathi village, searching for smuggled sandalwood[1] and to gather information about Veerappan.

[3] After a court order, the CBI began probing the case, which was also under the scope of the National Human Rights Commission.

[4] On 29 September 2011, a special court in India convicted all 269 accused officials under the SC-ST Prevention of Atrocities act and 17 of those for rape.

[7][8] Police were not ready to accept the case for three years and the then state minister K. A. Sengottaiyan commented that the villagers were aiding sandalwood smuggling.

[9] The entire incident has been made into a film by the name Vachathi, and in the background of the Veerappan nabbing operation, many atrocities and human rights violations were committed by special task force police.