Encounter death: Lone fighter Gopinatha Pillai no more

Alappuzha: Gopinatha Pillai, 77, one of the petitioners in the  Gujarat fake encounter case of 2004,  died on Friday  following a road accident  at   Cherthala  on Wednesday. The accident occurred when Pillai, a heart patient,   was going to a private hospital along with his younger brother V.R. Madhavan Pillai in a car for a routine check-up. A lorry rear-ended their car, which was being driven by Mr Madhavan Pillai, when he applied sudden brake at Vayalar junction around 6 a.m. Gopinatha Pillai suffered injuries and was rushed to a hospital in Ernakulam.  He died of heart failure  on Friday morning.  

His funeral will be held on the premises of his house at 11 a.m. on Saturday. He was living with his younger son  at   Thamarakulam village near Charumood here. Pattanakkad Sub-Inspector B. Shajimon said that  two vehicles,  including that in which  Pillai was travelling, were seized and subjected to forensic examination. Further investigation will be initiated after getting the forensic report, he  said. It may be recalled that Gopinatha Pillai’s son Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh, Ishrat Jahan, a student, and two others were killed by Gujarat police in Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004 alleging that they were part of  a  banned Pakistani militant group that was  planning to kill the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.  Pranesh Pillai had converted to Islam earlier and married  Sajitha Sheik.  

Gopinatha Pillai had been fighting the case seeking justice for his son for over a decade. The  CBI filed a  report in the Gujarat High Court in July 2013 saying  that  the encounter was fake. Pillai  had told DC in an interview that  Pranesh and his wife  had come home in their new Tata Indica car with children on  June 5, 2004  to stay there for a few days and take his elder son back after  summer vacation. 

Madhavan Pillai  told DC that Pranesh was brainwashed and cheated.  However, Gopinatha Pillai did not believe it and had bought flats for his  three grandchildren who live in Pune.    Pillai, who was a regular visitor to a nearby Durga temple at Charumood,  had been expelled by the NSS.       Pranesh’s wife Sajitha and children reached Pillai’s home on Friday to attend his funeral.  Her  elder son, a tutorial teacher,  told DC that they were informed about the death of his grandfather in the morning and immediately left for Kerala.  He also pointed out that  he would continue his grandfather’s fight to get justice done for his family.