This Article is From Jun 04, 2014

Gopinath Munde to be Cremated With Full State Honours Today

Gopinath Munde to be Cremated With Full State Honours Today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other political leaders paid their tributes to Gopinath Munde at the BJP headquarters in Delhi.

New Delhi: Union rural development minister Gopinath Munde, who died after a road accident in Delhi on Tuesday morning, will be cremated with full state honours in his native place today.

"At 7 AM, Munde's body will be flown in an Indian Air Force plane from Kalina airport to Latur from where an IAF helicopter will take the body to Munde's native place in Parli where he will be cremated in full state honours," Senior BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy said.

Mr Munde was sworn in as a Cabinet minister last week.

The 64-year-old minister, considered the BJP's tallest leader in Maharashtra, was on his way to the airport to go to Beed, his Lok Sabha constituency, for a victory rally, when an Indica car crashed into his SX4 car at the Prithviraj Road and Aurobindo Chowk cross-section in the heart of the city, the police said.

He was rushed to the trauma centre at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, and was pronounced dead at 7.20 am.

Mr Munde's body was kept for about an hour at the BJP headquarters in Delhi, where leaders across party lines, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, gathered to pay their tributes.

Later in the evening, his body was flown to Mumbai and kept in the party's headquarters for people to pay their last respects.

The driver of the Indica, who was arrested and charged with causing death due to negligence and rash driving, has been granted bail by a Delhi court.
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