Former President A P J Abdul Kalam passes away

Former President A P J Abdul Kalam, a popular head of state between 2002 and 2007, died on Monday after he collapsed during a lecture in Shillong.

The 84-year-old Kalam was rushed to Bethany Hospital in Nongrim hills after he collapsed during the lecture in the Indian Institute of Management at around 6.30 pm.

Chief Secretary P B O Warjiri told reporters outside the hospital that he had spoken to Union Home Secretary L C Goyal asking for necessary arrangements to be made for carrying Kalam's body from Guwahati to Delhi on Tuesday morning.

"The former President has been admitted to Bethany hospital in a critical condition," M Kharkrang, SP Khasi Hills said earlier.

The former President collapsed during a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management at around 6.30 pm and was rushed to the hospital in Nongrim hills in the capital city of Meghalaya, where he was placed in the Intensive Care Unit.

ght dead to the hospital.

“He was brought to the hospital at around 7 pm without a pulse or any other sign of life, and that efforts were made to revive him. At 7.45 pm, Dr Kalam was declared dead, he said. When asked what the cause of death was he said, “As for the cause of death, difficult to say, but it may have been a cardiac event.” “He is in the Intensive Care Unit. We are examining him. We suspect that it could be cardiac arrest,” Sailo added.

Doctors from the army hospital and North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences rushed to Bethany hospital.

Governor V Shanmughanathan, Speaker Abu Taher Mondal, Home Minister Roshan Warjiri, the Chief Secretary and DGP Rajiv Mehta rushed to the hospital.  

‘Going to Shillong.. to take course on Livable Planet earth at iim. With @srijanpalsingh and Sharma,’ Kalam had tweeted earlier in the day.