How a thief named Kolappan saved V S Achuthanandan's life

Indian Express

7 days ago

Long before he became Chief Minister of Kerala, V S Achuthanandan lived through one of the darkest chapters of political resistance in Indian history. Among the many struggles he faced, one moment stands out –when a thief, Kolappan, unknowingly became the man who saved his life.
According to accounts carried by Deshabhimani, the mouthpiece of the CPI(M), this extraordinary episode took place in 1946, during the brutal aftermath of the Punnapra-Vayalar uprising in coastal Alappuzha against the alleged brutal suppression of people's movement by Diwan Sir C P Ramaswamy Iyer who served Travancore monarchy.
Achuthanandan had gone underground on party instructions as police cracked down on leaders of the undivided Communist Party.
He was eventually captured from a hideout in Poonjar in Kottayam district, betrayed by local rivals, and taken to Pala police lock-up.
What followed was nothing short of torture.
Policemen, led by a notorious officer, beat him mercilessly, demanding the whereabouts of other senior leaders like E M S Namboodiripad and P Krishna Pillai.
He refused to say a word. They tied his hands, beat his legs with sticks, and finally stabbed his leg with a bayonet. Bleeding heavily, Achuthanandan lost consciousness. Thinking he was dead, the police decided to dispose of his body quietly.
Since there was no official record of his arrest, they believed they could cover up his death. They wrapped his body in his mundu (dhoti) and placed him under the seat of a police jeep.
A thief named Kolappan, also in custody at the time, was made to assist them.
The plan was to bury the 'body' somewhere in the forest.
But as the jeep moved through the night, Kolappan noticed something — Achuthanandan was still breathing.
Kolappan alerted the police that the man they thought was dead was, in fact, alive.
The police then rushed him to the government hospital in Pala.
He survived — though it took weeks of treatment to recover from the injuries.
Soon after, he was re-arrested in connection with another political case and sent to Alappuzha sub-jail.
He later served time in Thiruvananthapuram's Poojappura Central Jail as prisoner number 8957.
He was released in 1949.
Achuthanandan, who died on Monday at the age of 101, carried the scars of this ordeal for the rest of his life — both physical and emotional.