R. Nallakannu, Veteran Communist Party of India (CPI) Leader and Freedom Fighter, Passes Away at 101

Key facts

• Veteran Communist Party of India (CPI) leader and freedom fighter R. Nallakannu passed away at the age of 101 on 25 February 2026 at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
• Born on 25 December 1925 in Srivaikuntam, he joined the CPI in 1944 and later served as the State Secretary of the party in Tamil Nadu for 13 years.
• He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1949 in the Nellai conspiracy case for organising a land for tillers agitation and was released in 1956.
• The Government of Tamil Nadu conferred the Thagaisaal Tamilar (Scholarly Tamil) award upon him in 2022, which carried a cash prize of ₹15 lakh.
• He received the Ambedkar Award for the year 2007 from the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi.
• He donated the ₹15 lakh prize money from the Thagaisaal Tamilar award to the Chief Minister’s relief fund and returned a car and ₹1 crore gifted by party cadres to the CPI.
• At the age of 95, he successfully argued a petition before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court to secure a five-year ban on illegal sand mining in the Thamirabarani river.
• His body was donated for medical research in accordance with his final wishes.