Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan. (Photo | Albin Mathew, EPS)
KOCHI: Congress state president K Sudhakaran’s allegation that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was accused in the murders of Vadikal Ramakrishnan, a Jana Sangham worker, and Babu, who served as the gunman of Pinarayi for 20 years, has brought Kannur’s violent politics to the fore.
During his press conference here, Sudhakaran also said Kandoth Gopi, Kannur DCC secretary, is a living martyr of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s politics of violence. Following Sudhakaran’s presser, Gopi too addressed the media and alleged that Pinarayi hacked him in 1977.
“I was then state secretary of National Beedi and Cigar Workers Union. During the Emergency, 26 workers of the Pinarayi Dinesh Beedi Society were sacked. On a fateful day, when I reached Valiyambalam Bazaar to inaugurate the march demanding their reinstatement, a gang of 30 men led by Pinarayi armed with swords reached the spot and attacked us. When I tried sopping them, Pinarayi hacked my hand,” Gopi said. “But Pinarayi used his influence to subvert the case. Police did not even file an FIR though they collected our statement,” he said.
