A court in Gobichettipalayam in Tamil Nadu's Erode district, acquitted all nine people accused in the abduction of Kannada actor Rajkumar and three others, by dacoit Veerappan.
Delivering the judgment, Additional District Judge Mani, on Tuesday, said that the prosecution did not gather enough evidence against the accused in the case and "not even an iota of evidence was produced to show the accused were accomplices of Veerappan".
The judge also said that Rajkumar's family did not turn up to depose in front of the court during the trial. The verdict comes 18 years after the abduction which took place on July 30, 2000. The actor was held captive for 108 days in the forest.
While Veerappan was killed in an encounter with the Special Task Force in 2004, Rajkumar passed away in 2006.