Kottayam: Senior journalist R Gopikrishnan, the chief editor of 'Metro Vaartha', has passed away. He was 67. The funeral would be held with state honours at the municipal electric crematorium at Muttambalam in Kottayam town at 4pm on Monday.
Gopikrishnan had won the state government's best journalist award twice in 1985 and 1988. He had also secured several other awards including, the M Shivaram Award (1989), V Karunakaran Nambiar Award for political reporting, K C Sebastian Award, and the C H Mohammed Koya Award. He had also translated Dan Brown's popular novel 'Da Vinci Code' into Malayalam.
Gopikrishnan is the son of Muvattupuzha native V P Raghavan Nair and Pankajakshiamma.
He pursued his studies at the Nirmala College at Muvattupuzha; NSS College, Changanacherry; and the Georgi Dimitrov International Institute of Journalism in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Gopikrishnan began his journalistic career at 'Deepika'. He also later worked with 'Mangalam', 'Kerala Kaumudi', and 'Metro Vaartha'.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Minister V N Vasavan, former CM Oommen Chandy, Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, MLA, Jose K Mani, MP, and Thomas Chazhikadan, MP, offered condolences over his demise.
Gopikrishnan is survived by wife Leela Gopikrishnan and children Vinay Gopikrishnan (business, Bengaluru) and Dr Sneha Gopikrishna (assistant professor at Vimala College in Thrissur) and son-in-law Suraj M S (HDFC Bank, Thrissur).
