Collision of cars triggers Min’s fatal heart attack
Senior BJP leader and Union Rural Development Minister Gopinath Munde died due to multiple internal injuries and cardiac arrest suffered following a road accident in the national Capital on Tuesday morning. Sixty-four-year-old Munde, who was sworn-in as Cabinet Minister last week, was on his way to the airport when his car was hit by another vehicle at the Prithiviraj Road and Aurbindo Marg crossing.
His body was kept at the BJP headquarters at Ashoka Road for last tributes where President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and the entire BJP leadership, including veteran lK Advani and party president Rajnath Singh, paid respects to the departed soul. His body was later flown to Mumbai in a special Indian Air Force plane in the evening.
Munde’s last rites will be performed in his native village Parli in Beed district of Maharashtra where he will be given the State funeral on Wednesday. According to the police, Munde was accompanied by his driver Virendra Kumar and Assistant Personal Secretary Surendra Nair in his official SX4 car.
He was to attend a felicitation ceremony in his constituency, Beed in Maharashtra, after his elevation to the Union Cabinet. Munde left his residence 21, lodhi Estate, for the airport at 6.20 am.
His car was coming from Prithviraj Road and while it was getting on to Safdarjung Road, it was hit by a Tata Indica car which had jumped the red light from Aurobindo Marg.
Munde, who was sitting on the left side of the rear seat, sustained a major shock though he received no external injury. The Indica car had hit Munde’s vehicle from the same side in which he was seated. Munde’s car did not stop at the spot and his driver told police that Munde had asked for water in the car and also told them to take him to the hospital.
Munde was admitted to the emergency department at the Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Centre at 6:30 am. The Delhi Police said the Intelligence Bureau and the Special Cell of Delhi Police are investigating whether there was any conspiracy behind the accident. Police said it was Gurvinder, the errant driver, who made the PCR call at 6:45 am, nearly 25 minutes after the accident, stating that a car with a red beacon had hit his vehicle and fled. However, the accused was arrested by police and produced in a court which later granted him bail.
“During the time of his arrival he had no spontaneous breathing, no blood pressure, no pulse, bilateral pupils were dilated and fixed and no cardiac activity was present. Immediately Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) process was carried out for 50 minutes but despite all aggressive resuscitation measures he could not be revived and was declared dead at 7:20 am,” said Dr Amit Gupta, spokesperson of the AIIMS Trauma Centre. later a team of doctors conducted post-mortem examination of Munde.
Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said Munde suffered cervical fractures that cut off the oxygen supply to the brain and lungs following the injuries. His liver tore around three places and there was one-and-half litre of blood loss in his abdomen because of the injury. “The major thing that cost him very heavily was a fracture of the cervical spines C1 and C2. When there is a fracture at C1 and C2, the blood supply at the brain gets cut off because the vertebral artery gets damaged immediately,” said Vardhan. Doctors claimed that Munde was a hypertensive and a sugar patient. He was currently on medication.
After inspecting the spot and the vehicles involved in the accident, senior police officials assumed that the Indica car must be driven over a speed of 100 km/hr while Munde’s car would have been moving at the speed of around 60 km/hr. After the collision, the Indica car skid at a distance of 31 feet towards Tughlaq Road and the tyre marks were visible as well.
“The driver of the Indica car identified as Gurvinder jumped the red light. There were 26 seconds left for light to turn green when Munde was crossing the intersection. A case of rash and negligent driving causing death has been registered at Tughlaq Road police station and the driver was arrested as well,” said Additional Commissioner of Police (New Delhi district) SBS Tyagi. The Crime Branch team and the FSl team inspected the spot to reconstruct the sequence of events. The Indica car was seized by the police.