Surjeet's wife Pritam Kaur dies

Pritam Kaur, freedom fighter and wife of late Marxist stalwart Harkishan Singh Surjeet, died due to old age ailments at a Noida hospital.

Pritam Kaur, 93, breathed her last at around 6:55 PM on Saturday, her grandson Sandeep Singh Basi told PTI here today.

"Her body would be kept at CPI(M) headquarters (AKG Bhawan) here tomorrow for people to pay respects between 10 AM and 11 AM. Thereafter, it will be taken to our ancestral village for cremation," he said.

The cremation will take place at Bundala village in Punjab's Jalandhar district at 1 PM on Thursday, he said.

Pritam Kaur is survived by two sons, Gurchetan and Paramjeet, and daughter Charanjeet Kaur.
 

Basi, who had been living with Kaur and Surjeet for over 35 years, said the two had got married sometime in 1938. Pritam, like Surjeet, was also associated with the freedom movement and later involved in various social activities.

Narrating an interesting anecdote, Basi said after marriage when they were on their way to Surjeet's home in Bundala village, a police team came and stopped the marriage party to arrest the young Surjeet.

Surjeet, who was then working underground for revolutionary outfits in Punjab, requested the police not to arrest him till he could take his newly-wedded wife home. He was arrested after they reached their ancestral home.

Surjeet, who was the CPI(M) General Secretary from 1992 to 2005, had died on August 1, 2008 at the age of 92.

Surjeet had begun his revolutionary career influenced by the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh. He had hoisted the tricolour in March 1932 at the district court in Hoshiarpur at the age of 16 after which he was arrested for the first time.