Two years after Abhimanyu's murder, SFI gets 3000 students to register as organ donors as a tribute

The last suspect in the murder case had surrendered before a court on June 18. Abhimanyu was stabbed to death on July 2, 2018
Abhimanyu was murdered on July 2, 2018
Abhimanyu was murdered on July 2, 2018

Che Guevara once said, “Many will call me an adventurer, and that I am...only one of a different sort: one who risks his skin to prove his truths.” Years later, when the mainland heard the news of how his 39-year-old lifeless body was buried in an unmarked grave by the Bolivian army, after executing him, comrades from all across the world chanted, "A man can be destroyed, but not defeated," in multiple tongues.

Abhimanyu was no Che. His lifespan was two decades lesser than that of the Argentinian revolutionary. However, two years ago, on July 2, 2018, when his slain body was buried, almost everyone who knew him chanted the same famous lines by Hemingway. Then a second-year BSc Chemistry student at Maharaja's College, Ernakulam, he was stabbed to death, allegedly by the activists of the Campus Front of India and Popular Front of India, following a dispute over a piece of graffiti on campus. Two other students associated with the SFI were stabbed along with him.

The police chargesheet had named 10 people in connection with the murder case. Sahal, the tenth accused in the case had surrendered before a lower court in Kerala on June 18. He had been absconding until then. A few months before that, in November 2019, the prime accused, Mohammed Shaheem, had surrendered before the court.

Abhimanyu was a student of Maharaja's College, Ernakulam



The recent developments in the case are undoubtedly sources of relief for the slain unionist's family. "I am happy that all the people who killed my little brother have surrendered. I really hope that our judicial system and the government awards them the right punishment," says Abhimanyu's elder brother Parijith. A CPIM activist and a bank employee, he breathed a sigh of relief as he tells us this. 

This was in contrast to how Parijith sounded when we spoke to him last year, on Abhimanyu's first death anniversary. "Every memory of Abhi tears me up. I miss talking to him," he had then said. A year down the line, Parijith sounded calm, confident even. "Nothing can ever replace what we lost. Nothing can bring back our lost peace. However, the recent developments are quite reassuring," he says.

Abhimanyu was born as the third son to a Tamil-speaking labourer couple Manoharan and Bhoopathy in Vattavada in Idukki. This year, the COVID protocols are in place, which prevents the CPIM and the family from holding a larger memorial event. But that is not stopping the SFI from holding a study material distribution event. "Tomorrow, we are distributing study materials to 1500 students in Idukki. We are also distributing TVs to 10 poor students in Vattavada," says SFI's Kerala state president V Vineesh. "On top of that, 3,000 students in Ernakulam are registering themselves as organ donors tomorrow," he says.

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