Pandit Vithal Rao died of heart attack: Doctors
He was found under the Begumpet station bridge
HYDERABAD: Veteran ghazal singer Pandit Vithal Rao died in Gandhi Hospital on Wednesday. He was 86. Rao, who had gone missing from Shirdi, Maharashtra, on May 29, was spotted under the Begumpet Railway Station Bridge and was shifted by the Panjagutta police to Gandhi Hospital.
Sources said that he died of a heart attack. The special team of police identified the body with the help of Rao’s artificial eye.
Rao was known as the living legend of ghazal. Rao’s nephew Deepak Rao said, “On June 24, Pandit Ji reached Begumpet station at around 2 pm. He was extremely weak; locals say that he managed to walk out of the station but could not go further and dropped under the bridge. The locals called the Panjagutta police who called an ambulance…he was taken to Gandhi. Those were his last moments. Doctors at Gandhi Hospital tried talking to him but he could not reply. He died of a heart attack on the same day. On June 25, the hospital informed CID officer Shyam Babu. We had pasted 3,000 posters of Pandit Ji from Secunderabad to Charminar, at every police station and at every public place. On Friday we were called to identify the body and it turned out to be Pandit Ji. The cremation will be held on Saturday at 1 pm.”
Read: A tribute to late Ustad Vithal Rao
CID officer Shyam Babu further explained, “The search was on at Hyderabad and Shirdi; sadly he was found dead in the Gandhi Hospital mortuary. The Panjagutta police stated that on June 24 afternoon they shifted him from Country Club flyover to Gandhi Hospital. The doctors said that he could not recollect his name; he was extremely week, in a semi-conscious state. Railway officials stated that they had identified the same person on June 7 at Manmad Aurangabad station.”