Gurudas Kamat cremated with state honours

Mumbai: Senior Congress leader Gurudas Kamat was cremated on Thursday with full state honours. His body was wrapped in the tricolour and was taken to the crematorium in a flower-bedecked vehicle. His son Sunil Kamat lit the pyre while a police contingent gave the departed leader a gun salute.

The 63-year-old Kamat, a five-time Lok Sabha MP and former Union minister, died of a heart attack in New Delhi on Wednesday. His body was flown to Mumbai on Wednesday night and the funeral service started at his home in Chembur on Thursday. A popular personality in the Congress party, Kamat is survived by wife Maharookh and son Sunil. Many people gathered at his home in Chembur to pay their last respects, including politicians.

Among those who paid their last respects to the departed leader were chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, education minister Vinod Tawde, senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam, former chief minister Narayan Rane, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ashish Shelar and Krishna Hegde and  former Union minister Mukul Wasnik.