Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 30 (IANS): The CPI-M Tuesday pulled up party leader and former Kerala chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan for defending his then aide arrested for setting ablaze the memorial to a communist veteran.

After a lull in intra-party conflict, the state unit of the Communist Party of India-Marxist criticised Achuthanandan for his stand on the destruction of the memorial to P. Krishna Pillai.

Of the five named in the case, prime accused Litheesh P. Chandran was a staff member of Achuthanandan when he was chief minister from 2006 to 2011.

Initially, Achuthanandan termed the attack "heinous and pre-planned". But when Chandran and his close friends were named as accused, he termed it a conspiracy by police and asked the CPI-M to condemn the police.

The CPI-M Tuesday approved the sacking of the party members accused of desecrating the monument at Alappuzha.

"It was wrong on the part of Achuthanandan to have glorified Chandran, which has caused a dent to the party's image. He should stop airing such remarks in public," a party statement said.

Chandran was arrested this month and released on bail. The others got anticipatory bail from the Kerala High Court.

Pillai was a founder-leader of the communist movement in Kerala. He died of snake bite Aug 19, 1948 while he was in hiding.

The CPI-M also gave a clean chit to Alappuzha party veteran T.K. Palani who, Achuthanandan alleged, had a role in the attack on the memorial.

Tuesday's statement comes ahead of the CPI-M state conference where it will elect a new state party secretary to succeed Pinarayi Vijayan who has completed three terms.

Vijayan and Achuthanandan are known to lead rival camps in the Kerala CPI-M.