The man who was killed by the Special Task Force along with three of his associates at Papparapatti village in Dharmapuri district, Tamil Nadu, on Monday was indeed Veerappan, according to an expert.

Veerappan's missing handlebar moustache had triggered speculation that it wasn't the sandalwood smuggler who was killed.

Professor P Chandra Sekharan, who was the principal scientific investigator in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, said he studied the anatomical structure of Veerappan's external ear from ante-mortem and post-mortem photographs to get the confirmation.

The Veerappan Saga Ends

The external ear's anatomical structure differs from individual to individual and constitutes a characteristic feature of personal identification, the former director of Tamil Nadu Government's Forensic Science Department said in a statement in Chennai.

Pointing out that the combination of various parts of the external ear such as helix, antihelix, triangular fossa, tragus and lobule was unique to an individual, he said: "Veerappan's ear is unique with a flat tragus formation and the tragus being contiguous with the curved portion of the helix."

"The lobule is enlarged and squarish in shape. These peculiar features, in my opinion, are more than enough to confirm the identity of Veerappan," he said.