The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State committee on Sunday expelled former party Ernakulam district secretary Gopi Kottamurikkal from the primary membership of the party.
The decision follows the finding of a party-appointed committee that he is guilty of sexual demeanour in the district committee office of the CPI(M) and his public statements on the involvement of his detractors in the district unit of the CPI(M) in creating evidence against him.
The decision to initiate action against him came after the State committee, which was specially convened for the purpose, heard the findings of the inquiry committee led by CPI(M) secretariat member and LDF convener Vaikom Viswan. According to sources in the party, Mr. Kottamurikkal would not have faced such a severe punishment had he refrained from going public with his criticism about his party colleagues’ involvement in creating video evidence against him.
Mr. Kottamurikkal, in the course of a TV interview and public meeting, alleged that he was done in by members of the CPI(M) Ernakulam district secretariat. The inquiry committee had found at least three of them guilty of involvement in the attempt to create evidence against him because of the factional rivalry within the district unit of the party.
Action against others
The State committee, which discussed the complicity of these district secretariat members, decided to suspend district secretariat member K.A. Chackochan from the party for six months, demote P.S. Mohanan, another district secretariat member, to the Koothattukulam area committee, and censure T.K. Mohanan and M.P. Pathrose, district secretariat members, for their involvement in the plot against Mr. Kottamurikkal.
The State committee also decided to suspend two employees at the party district committee office. It took the CPI(M) State committee almost five hours to go through the inquiry committee report and arrive at its decisions, the rationale of which was explained to the committee by CPI(M) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan.
Although the CPI(M) State committee was expected to take up the question of initiating further disciplinary action against former Idukki district committee secretary M.M. Mani and the members of Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan’s personal staff, these did not materialise. This is likely only after the CPI(M) Central committee meeting scheduled to be held in the third week of July.