Thousands bid a tearful farewell to Andhra Pradesh Minister Mekapati Goutham Reddy, who was cremated with full state honours on Wednesday, February 23 at Udayagiri in his native Nellore district. The last rites of the leader, who died of cardiac arrest in Hyderabad on Monday, February 21, was performed at the Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy Institute of Technology and Sciences (MeRITS).
Goutham Reddy's son Krishna Arjun Reddy, who reached home from the US on Tuesday night, performed the last rites. The deceased leader's father and former MP Mekapati Rajmohan Reddy, mother, wife, daughter and other family members were inconsolable.
Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, his cabinet colleagues, MPs, MLAs and other leaders of YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), relatives, friends and followers attended the funeral. Police personnel fired in the air as a mark of respect as the YSRCP leader's son lit the funeral pyre.
Earlier, the funeral procession began from the minister's residence in Nellore and reached Udayagiri by road. Thousands of people paid their last respects to the departed leader enroute by showering petals and raising slogans of 'Goutham Reddy amar rahe'.
The flower bedecked vehicle carrying the body with a big portrait of the minister with dozens of vehicles in the procession passed through different villages and towns, where people had gathered in large numbers.
Minister for Industries, Commerce and Information Technology Goutham Reddy died of cardiac arrest in Hyderabad on Monday morning. He was 50. As his pulse rate started to drop while he was in his Jubilee Hills residence, his staff immediately rushed him to the nearby Apollo Hospital. According to the hospital, Goutham Reddy was brought in at 7.45 am, and was unresponsive, not breathing and in cardiac arrest on arrival.
His sudden demise came as a shock to his family and well-wishers as he was known to be a fitness enthusiast. His body was brought to Nellore by a helicopter on Tuesday and kept at his residence to allow people to pay their last respects.