Former Union minister Arun Jaitley passes away

Former Union minister Arun Jaitley died on Saturday at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). Jaitley, 66, was undergoing treatment at the hospital for several weeks.

“It is with profound grief that we inform about the sad demise of Arun Jaitley,” the AIIMS said in a brief statement.

Jaitley, a lawyer by profession, had been an important part in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet. He held the finance and defence portfolios, and often acted as the chief troubleshooter of the government.

This year, on May, Jaitley was admitted to AIIMS for treatment. He had undergone a renal transplant on May 14 last year at AIIMS where Railways Minister Piyush Goyal filling in for him in the finance ministry at that time.

Jaitley did not contest the 2019 Lok Sabha election presumably because of his ill-health. Jaitley, who had stopped attending office since early April last year, came back in the finance ministry on August 23, 2018.

In September 2014, he underwent bariatric surgery to correct the weight he had gained because of a long-standing diabetic condition.

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