Memorial of Kerala`s Communist pioneer damaged

Alappuzha: Unidentified persons damaged the bust of founder-leader of the communist movement in Kerala P Krishna Pillai and torched his memorial in the district in the wee-hours on Thursday, police said. Pillai, founder-secretary of the Communist Party in Kerala when it was formed in 1937, died of snake-bite on August 19, 1948, while living underground in a thatched hut at Muhamma, which was later turned into a memorial. A special team headed by K Padmakumar, IG, Central Range, has been formed to probe the incident. The CPI (M) and CPI have jointly called a dawn-to-dusk hartal in Alappuzha district tomorrow to protest the vandalisation of the memorial, held in high esteem by the Communists in Kerala and outside. Leader of the Opposition V S Achuthanandan and CPI(M) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan condemned the incident and wanted government to track down and book the culprits without delay. In a statement, CPI state secretary Pannian Raveendran said what had been vandalised was a memorial which was held in high reverence by the Communists in the country. The deplorable act appeared to be result of a conspiracy, he said.