Cleared in actor abduction case

Citing insufficient evidence, a court in Tamil Nadu yesterday acquitted all nine people accused of abducting the late Kannada actor Rajkumar in 2000.

The actor was kidnapped by smuggler Veerappan on July 30, 2000 from his farmhouse in Gajanur village on the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border. He was released on November 15. Rajkumar died in 2006. Veerappan and his associates were killed in 2004. (IANS)