Bangalore, Nov. 22 :    Bangalore, Nov. 22:  A Nakkeeran journalist who was the first to interview Veerappan has confessed that he was planning to supply electronic gadgets to the forest brigand, police claimed. Thirty-one-year-old reporter Sivasubramaniam was arrested on Tuesday by the Special Task Force patrol at the Yediherhalla forest range and remanded in judicial custody. He has been charged with having a nexus with Veerappan. 'It is not a suspicion. He has confessed,' Chamarajnagar superintendent of police P. Harishekharan said. Chamarjnagar is a border district close to Gajanur village from where Veerappan abducted actor Raj Kumar. But Sivasubramaniam's editor in Chennai, R.R. Gopal, who played emissary during the Raj Kumar hostage crisis last year, has cried foul. He alleged his reporter might have been abducted by the task force personnel to provide leads on Veerappan's whereabouts. During Gopal's frequent forays into the jungle to negotiate with Veerappan for Raj Kumar's release, the editor was accompanied by Sivasubramaniam. Although both the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu police have failed to track down Veerappan, Nakkeeran's editor has had easy access to the sandalwood smuggler, giving rise to speculation of a possible nexus between the forest brigand and Gopal. But the editor, who also sports a Veerappan-style handlebar moustache, has denied the charges. Police in Karnataka had booked cases in the early nineties against Gopal for alleged links with Veerappan. But the government was forced to drop the charges last year as Gopal made it a pre-condition for playing the role of emissary to secure Raj Kumar's release. While the sale of Nakkeeran soared during the kidnap drama, it has never been proved that Gopal made money during negotiations. But the editor of Nettrikann, Nakkeeran's rival magazine, produced an audio tape last week in which Veerappan allegedly says that Gopal made several crores of rupees during talks to release Raj Kumar. During the negotiations, the Karnataka government had given a clean chit to Gopal in public, but in private it had expressed reservations on the editor's credentials.