Obituary

With deep sorrow, we bid farewell to Comrade Prabir Haldar (67), a committed revolutionary and Central Committee member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation. As the Secretary of the Hooghly District Committee, he played a crucial role in organizing and strengthening the party in the region.

Comrade Sanyasi Oraon, one of the key organisers of the Naxalbari movement in Nadia, and a leading figure in Adivasi awakening and peasant resistance, passed away on March 21. In his final years, he suffered from age-related ailments, yet he remained steadfast in his revolutionary spirit until his last day.

Comrade Seenagi Khalkho, a senior activist of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation and a prominent leader of AIPWA (All India Progressive Women's Association), passed away on March 17, 2025 at RIMS, Ranchi. She had been battling illness for the past few years and was in critical condition in recent days. She was 60 years old.

We mourn the sudden demise of Comrade Vinod Lahiri, 56, who passed away on the night of 2 February 2025 at a RIMS hospital in Ranchi. From Jamshedpur to Ranchi, he discharged many responsibilities in the party including the party state office secretary at the state office at different times. A long-standing activist of CPIML since his student days in Jamshedpur in the early 1980s, he died of dyselectrolytemia. He was also suffering from ailments of kidney, diabetes and hypertension.

Zakia Jafri, a survivor of the 2002 Gujarat riots, during which her husband was killed in the Gulbarg Society massacre, passed away in Ahmedabad at the age of 86. She has left behind an enduring legacy of determination for justice even in the darkest of times. Her twenty three year long fight for justice will be carried forward towards an India free from the politics of hate and division.

Rest In Power!

Comrade Satyaprakash Tripathi, a senior member of the CPI(ML) and an advocate at the Patna High Court, passed away on the night of January 14, 2025, at the age of 74. He had been unwell for a long time. Comrade Satyaprakash had represented our party in the Justice Amir Das Commission, which was set up to investigate the political connections of the Ranveer Sena.

Comrade Ranbir Singh, a trade union leader and former CPIML candidate for the Sahibganj Assembly Seat (Bihar) in 1996, passed away at the age of 89 on December 16, 2024. Born and educated in Bihar, where he completed his graduation, Comrade Ranbir Singh dedicated most of his life to working in the tribal-dominated regions of present-day Jharkhand. His journey began as a leader of non-gazetted employees’ union. After retiring from government service in 1994, he dedicated fulltime for the party work and spearheaded numerous struggles for justice and rights.

On December 23, 2024, Indian cinema has lost one of its most transformative figures. Shyam Benegal, a doyen of India's parallel cinema movement and a great champion of diversity and democracy in India's cultural world passed away at the age of 90 in in Mumbai. Born on December 14, 1934, in Hyderabad, Benegal's illustrious career spanned several decades, during which he crafted films that delved into the intricacies of Indian society.

Veteran CPIML leader Comrade Jagdev Mahato, at the age of 80, on the morning of December 10, 2024, at PMCH in Patna. Comrade Mahato had been battling the severe respiratory illness, COPD, for a long period. He was a former General Secretary of the Patna Mahanagar Workers' Union and Sudha Dairy Drivers' Union.