C H Ashokan, the CPM Onchiyam area committee secretary and the 15th accused in the T P Chandrasekharan murder case, appeared along with party state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan at the state convention of the Federation of the State Employees and Teachers Organisation (FESTO) here on Tuesday.
It was Ashokan’s first public appearance after getting bail in the sensational murder case.
Ashokan, a former state leader of the NGO union, was accorded a warm reception at the meeting.
According to sources who attended the meeting, Ashokan met Pinarayi, ‘but did not share the dais with the party secretary’. They said that Pinarayi delivered the inaugural speech which lasted for more than two hours. “He vehemently opposed V S Achuthanandan and his anti-party activities all through his speech. Pinarayi said that whatever he had said against V S was not his personal opinion but the opinion of the party. He reiterated that the party had no role in the murder of the Revolutionary Marxist Party leader. But the party leaders were being trapped by the anti-CPM forces, he said.
FSETO office-bearers A Sreekumar, M Shajahan and P H M Ismail also attended the meeting.