Rural Development Minister Gopinath Munde dead

Gopinath Munde, Union Rural Development Minister and a popular backward class leader from Maharashtra, died today apparently of shock and cardiac arrest suffered during a road accident early in the morning.
64-year-old Munde, who made his entry into the Union Cabinet for the first time last week, was on his way to the airport when his car was hit by another vehicle at Prithviraj road-Tughlak road roundabout in the heart of the capital.
A brother-in-law of late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, Munde is survived by his wife and three daughters, one of whom is an MLA from Parli in Maharashtra's Beed district.

"Munde was brought to the emergency department of Jai Prakash Narain Apex Trauma Centre, AIIMS, at 6:30 AM by his personal assistant and driver. Munde was sitting in the backseat of his car which was hit by another car or any other vehicle at around 6:20 AM from the side he was sitting," Dr Amit Gupta of the Trauma Centre told reporters.
"On his arrival at the Trauma Centre, there was no spontaneous breathing, no blood pressure, no pulse, no cardiac activity. So immediately Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) was started and continued for the next 15 minutes. Despite resuscitative measures, Munde could not be revived and was declared dead at 7:20 AM," he said.

The doctor said, "Munde was hypertensive and a sugar patient. He was already taking medicines. Right now there are no major external injuries on his body. We cannot say anything but clinically we might say that he had a sudden cardiac death".

The body has been shifted to the mortuary for postmortem. A board has been formulated by the head of forensics to conduct the postmortem.
As it is a medico-legal case, the reason for the death can only be ascertained after postmortem, the doctor said.
Munde's Secretary S Nair, who was in the car, said the Union Minister received a huge shock after the accident and apparently suffered a massive heart attack.

A senior police official said the offending vehicle was an Indica car which jumped the traffic signal at Aurobindo Chowk and collided with the Maruti Suzuki SX 4 in which Munde was travelling towards Safdarjung road from Prithviraj road.