Veerappan's wife arrived in Dharmapuri on Tuesday afternoon to claim her husband's body.

A relative of Veerappan's accomplice Govindan, who was killed by the Special Task Force on Monday night, has also reached the town.

'Veerappan with such a short moustache?'

"We have to complete certain formalities because this is a case of police firing and required inquiries have to be conducted which is being handled by the revenue divisional officer, Dharmapuri," District Collector Ashish Vachani told rediff.com over the phone from Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu.

"Once that is over, and they feel like taking the body immediately, we will give them the necessary police bandobast and an ambulance."

'Who helped Veerappan survive so long?'

At present, the post-mortem has been done and the body has been embalmed.

Close to 25,000 curious onlookers have assembled outside the Dharmapuri hospital. The police are allowing them to take a quick glimpse and move on.

The police is present in full strength, says Vachani and they have not encountered any problems so far.