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K. Balagopal passes away

HYDERABAD: Civil rights activist K. Balagopal (52) died of cardiac arrest in a hospital here at Mehdipatnam on Thursday night. He is survived by his wife and a son.

Professor Balagopal was one of the staunch civil liberties activists in Andhra Pradesh. He broke away from the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee, with which he had been associated since its inception in the 1980s, on the issue of violence perpetrated by the erstwhile CPI-ML People’s War. He founded the human rights forum (RF) in Andhra Pradesh. He had been steadfastly opposing the ‘red violence’ of Maoists as much as he was against state violence. He was a prolific writer on people’s issues.

His bold criticism of the Maoists’ propensity for indulging in violence attracted severe criticism from the naxalites. As recently as a fortnight ago, Maoist Central Committee member Mallojula Koteshwar Rao challenged Professor Balagopal to visit Lalgarh in West Bengal to know the real picture.

Professor Balagopal gave up teaching in Kakatiya University and took to practising law nearly a decade ago. He argued dozens of cases of encounter killings.

When the erstwhile People’s War cadres resorted to a rash of kidnaps in late 1980s, a vigilante organisation ‘Praja Bandu’ abducted him demanding the release of two policemen from naxalite custody. The ‘Praja Bandu’, suspected to have been floated by the police, released him only after the abducted policemen were let off.

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