A letter written by R Paulraj, dhalapati (leader) of the Veerappan gang, was delivered to District Collector S Karuthiah Pandian. The letter, which was found in the post box of the Anthiyur sub-post office, was handed over to the Collector by post around 3 pm today.

Later, talking to newspersons, Pandian said that Veerappan had demanded Rs 3 crore as ransom to release the hostages. The forest officials, Abimanyu, Palani and Mahadevan, were safe in their custody, the letter said.

According to the letter, the Collector would be informed by telephone about the time and place for handing over the money. Veerappan had asked the authorities to publish the telephone number of the Collector in newspapers.

The envelope contained three separate letters written by the hostages to their wives, with a request to hand them over to their families.

Pandian saidVeerappan or any of his gang members could contact him through his residence telephone number -- 262444.

Earlier, he held discussions with Combined Special Task Force of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu IG Balachandran, Coimbatore range DIG Rajendran and Superintendent of Police, Ashok Kumar Das.