Naxal leader Megh Raj dies at 77

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 6

Megh Raj, one of the founders of the Naxalite movement in Punjab and one of the last remaining member of Patiala’s intellectual discussion group Bhootwara, passed away on Tuesday in Bathinda. He was 77 and was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease a few years back.

During his student days at Punjabi University, Patiala, he, along with renowned Naxalite leader Prof Harbhajan Sohi and other scholars, was part of ‘Bhootwara’, a house at Patiala’s Mall Road, which housed a discussion group of young scholars in the mid 1960s.

Later, Megh Raj left his job as lecturer at TPD College, Rampura, and joined the Naxalite movement.

He was arrested before the Emergency. After his release, he worked underground for several years.

For the past several years, he was doing translations and was regarded as an expert on Marxist cultural issues.