New Delhi, June 3 – Rural Development Minister Gopinath Munde died on Tuesday after a head-on road collision near Moti Bagh in New Delhi.
Munde, appointed just over a week ago to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new government, suffered serious injuries while driving to the IGI airport and died in hospital.
“An accident took place earlier in the morning, following which he was taken to the Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi. Doctors declared him dead at about 8 a.m.,” Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari told reporters.
Munde, 64, died in hospital from cardiac arrest. His body will be taken to Beed, Maharashtra where he was supposed to address a victory rally. The funeral will take place in Latur tomorrow.
The driver of the Indica car which hit the minister’s car has been taken into custody.
Munde was going in his SX4 vehicle at Aurobindo Chowk when an Indica car hit him.
He had suffered multiple injuries including injuries to the chest and head and was on ventilator.His family members too have left for Delhi.
(Munde’s family rushes to Delhi after the news of his death came in)
Munde was on his way to the Delhi’s IGI Airport from where he was scheduled to catch a flight for Mumbai. He was supposed to attend a victory rally in Beed, Maharashtra on Tuesday.
He was deputy chief minister in Maharashtra from 1995 to 1999 and elected twice to India’s lower house of Parliament, in 2009 and 2014. He had served as deputy leader of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Parliament. Munde is the brother-in-law of late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan.
