New Delhi: Wrapped in tri-colour body of former President APJ Abdul Kalam, who died last night at Shillong, today arrived in Delhi. President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a host of dignitaries today paid their homage to former President of India.
The dignitaries placed wreaths on the body and placed on a deck on the tarmac at the Palam technical area after it was brought down from a special IAF aircraft that ferried it from Guwahati.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, Delhi Lt Governor Najeeb Jung, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, three service chiefs and the Marshal of the Indian Air Force 96-year-old Arjan Singh were among the dignitaries, who paid their last respects to the departed soul.
Earlier the body of Kalam was taken from Shillong in a Air Force helicopter to Guwahati, where Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi paid his respects.
The President and other dignitaries stood in silence as a guard of honour was given before the former President’s body was taken in a flower-bedecked gun carriage to his residence at 10 Rajaji Marg, where it will lie in state for people to pay homage from 3 PM onwards.
The last rites of Kalam will take place at his birthplace in Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu tomorrow at the request of his family members.
APJ Abdul Kalam, former President of India died on Monday at a hospital in Meghalaya, where he had gone to deliver a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management in Shillong.
Dr Kalam who was 83 reportedly collapsed on stage at the IIM and was rushed to the Bethany hospital. Doctors say he suffered from a massive cardiac arrest.
Dr Kalam — the 11th President on India between 2002 and 2007 — was born in Rameswaram on October 15, 1931, to the family of a boatman.
Kalam was awarded the Padma Bhushan and Bharat Ratna, and then he became the 11th President of India in 2002.
He played a pivotal role in India’s Pokhran-II nuclear test in 1998, the first since the test by India in 1974. He was known as the missile man of India.