Negotiations to secure the release of Indian film star Rajkumar, kidnapped by bandit king Veerappan, broke down this week after the Indian Supreme Court refused to release 127 of the outlaw's accomplices

Veerappan said he would not free his hostages until the aides and Tamil Nadu Liberation Army activists had been released from jails in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Rajkumar and three other hostages were abducted from Gajanur on the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border on July 30.

Rajkumar has reportedly told chief negotiator R.R. Gopal - who is the editor of Tamil-language bi-weekly Nakkeran - that he won't ask Veerappan to release him. "I have left it to fate," said the septuagenarian actor. Gopal has said he will go back to the forest to continue talks if asked to do so by both the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu governments.