A court in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday acquitted all the nine persons accused of abducting Kannada actor Rajkumar in 2000.
The court in Gobichettipalayam said that there was insufficient evidence against the accused.
The actor was kidnapped by sandalwood smuggler Veerappan on July 30, 2000, from his farmhouse in Gajanur village on the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border. He was released on November 15.
Rajkumar died in 2006.
Veerappan and his associates were killed in 2004 by the Tamil Nadu Special Task Force.
