Former Union minister and senior Congress leader Pandit Sukh Ram died on Wednesday, his grandson Aayush Sharma said. He was 94.
“With a very heavy heart I bid farewell to my beloved dadaji Pandit Sukh Ram Sharma,” Sharma wrote on Instagram.
The Himachal Pradesh Congress leader was undergoing treatment at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences since May 7, PTI reported. Sukh Ram had suffered a brain stroke on May 4 while he was in Manali. He was admitted to a hospital in Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi and later shifted to Delhi for better treatment.
Sukh Ram represented the Mandi Assembly constituency from 1963 to 1984. After getting elected to the Lok Sabha in 1984, he also worked as a junior minister in the Rajiv Gandhi government.
From 1993 to 1996, Sukh Ram was the Union Minister of Communications in the Narasimha Rao government, PTI reported.
In 2011, he was sentenced to five years in prison for corruption in a telecom scam.
Aashray Sharma said that Sukh Ram’s body will be brought to Mandi on Wednesday at 6 pm and will be kept at Seri Manch on Thursday at 11 am for people to pay their last respects.
Tributes poured in on social media for Sukh Ram.
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