Veteran freedom fighter Lakshmi Sehgal dead

Kanpur:  Lakshmi Sehgal, a close associate of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and the first head of the women's wing of the Azad Hind Fauj, died around 11.20 a.m. Monday at a private hospital in Kanpur, her family said. She was 97.

She was in coma for the past three days after suffering a massive heart attack. The family announced that Sehgal had donated her body for medical research. Sehgal's daughter Subhashini Ali, a former member of parliament, told IANS that the family had decided to switch off the ventilator after doctors advised that her revival was impossible. "We switched off the ventilator at around 11 am and she passed away at around 11.20 a.m.," Ali said. The body would be kept for people to pay their respects at her house in Mac Robertsganj and would be taken in a procession Tuesday to the S.N. Medical College, Ali said. Doctors attending on Sehgal said that her vital parametres had slowed down since Saturday and all efforts to revive her failing organs had failed. She slipped into coma thereafter.