‘Hatchet man’ Vidya Charan Shukla, 84, who was critically injured by Maoists in an ambush in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar district on May 25, succumbed to his injuries in Gurgaon on Tuesday.
The former Union minister and senior Congress leader was admitted at Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon a day after the attack, where doctors tried to save his intestine and liver. He lost the battle, without showing any sign of improvement, to the high levels of toxins in his body, though.
Shukla shot to infamy for the censorship he imposed on the media during Emergency as the information and broadcasting minister.
Shukla, who was close to Indira Gandhi’s younger son Sanjay Gandhi, cut power supply to newspaper printing presses, clamped restrictions on free media operations, harassed and imprisoned journalists and personally monitored stories for their stance towards the government.
(with agency inputs)
