Mangaluru : CPI(M) national general secretary Sitaram Yechury visited A.J. Hospital in Mangaluru to see Sundar Malekudiya, a Dalit whose fingers were chopped off allegedly by his landlord at Neriya in Beltangady taluk.on Thursday September 3

Doctors treating 48-year-old Sundara Malekudiya – a tribal man who suffered serious injury following an attack on July 27 – said it would take about a year for his hands to function.

Doctors at the A.J. Hospital said this to General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Sitaram Yechury, who met Mr. Malekudiya at the hospital on Thursday.

Mr. Malekudiya was hit on his right and left hands by a weed cutting machine by Gopala Gowda, a landlord in Belthangady. His thumb and forefinger has been cut off on the right hand, there are deep cut wounds on the left elbow.

While expressing his regret over the way Mr. Malekudiya had been attacked, Mr. Yechury told him that the party would support him and his family members in their fight against Gopala Gowda.

When Mr. Yechury asked doctors of chances of Mr. Malekudiya getting back the regular functioning of his hands, doctors said they need an operation and nerve recovery procedures. “We hope to see his hands function normally in another year,” a doctor told Mr. Yechury.

Later Mr. Yechury told reporters that the attack on Mr. Malekudiya was serious and a reflection of dominance of landlords. He said the attack showed the Forest Rights Act was not being implemented properly.

“We will raise this issue in the parliament,” he said. Mr. Yechury said it was the responsibility of the State government to meet treatment expenses of Mr. Malekudiya. “The State government should meet the treatment expenses and recover it from landlord who has attacked,” he told reporters.