Freedom fighter and Communist leader A.M. Gopu, who survived police bullets six decades ago and for whose capture the police had once announced a reward of Rs. 5,000, died here on Thursday.
He was 83 and is survived by his daughter. As per his wishes, the body was donated to the Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital here.
Gopu’s contemporaries and comrades in the Communist movement, Vaatakudi Iranian and Sivaraman, were shot dead by the police while Kalappal Kuppu died in prison. Gopu had a miraculous escape.
When the Communist party was banned, Gopu went underground and worked among peasants in the unified Thanjavur district where feudal lords ruled the roost.
In 1950, the police caught him at Tiruvarur and shot him. Assuming he was dead, they sent him to a government hospital for ‘post-mortem examination’.
The doctors found he was alive and removed the bullets. Some pieces of shrapnel, however, were embedded in his bones and gave him constant pain.
Born A.M. Govindarasu, Gopu plunged into the freedom movement when he was in Class IX at Tiruvidaimarudur.
In 1942, he, along with three other students, went around the streets raising slogans against the British. They were arrested and kept in a juvenile home and released after 16 days.
He had to constantly leave one school for another because of his political activities. Though an outstanding student, the Maharaja College, Pudukottai, expelled him for organising a protest against the visit of Sir C.P. Ramaswami Iyer, Diwan of Travancore. He was allowed to write the first-year examinations taking into consideration his academic credentials.
He later joined the Kumbakonam College but did not complete the course. Later, CPI leader K. Balathandayutham brought him to Chennai to work for Janasakthi, the party’s official organ.
While he was underground, Gopu’s primary task was to mobilise funds to feed the families of comrades in hiding. He also organised bullets for the guns carried by Sivaraman and others.
His most daring action was the waylaying of a trolley carrying the salary of railway employees of the French Government in Puducherry.
