The Criminal Investigation Department of the Tamil Nadu police arrested a Coimbatore-based reporter of Nakeeran magazine on Wednesday in connection with the murder of a youth allegedly by forest brigand Veerappan in 1998.

A CID officer, a member of the special investigation team formed to nab Veerappan, arrested reporter Makaran alias Krishna Kumar from his residence at Coimbatore at 0530 IST, sources said.

The sources alleged that the police was trying to uncover evidence to link not only the reporter with Veerappan, but also Nakeeran editor R R Gopal, who was involved in the negotiations to free Kannada film actor Rajakumar.

Alleging that the police had manhandled the reporter, the sources said they had sent telegrams to the Centre, the state government and the Supreme Court informing them about the arrest.