H K L Bhagat passes away

NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister H K L Bhagat died in a city hospital this afternoon after prolonged illness, party sources said.

He was 80. Bhagat had been ailing for quite some time and the end came around 2 pms, Congress party sources said . The end came at his 29, East Nizamuddin residence this evening, family sources said.

Bhagat, who was undergoing treatment for Alzheimer's disease at Apollo hospital for the last one year, is survived by his wife, a son and two daughters.

For two decades, the veteran Congressman was bedeviled by investigations over his alleged involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots along with a few other party stalwarts from Delhi, including Jagdish Tytler, Sajjan Kumar and Dharamdas Shastri.

In its report earlier this year, the G T Nanavati Commission, which probed the riots, said there was no need to investigate  Bhagat's role in the riots ''because of his advanced age and declining health''.