NEW DELHI
A minister in India's newly-formed government has died in a car crash Tuesday morning, according to the Press Trust of India.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party member and the federal rural development minister, Gopinath Munde, is reported to have died of shock and cardiac arrest after his car was hit from the side, on the way to Delhi airport.
Munde was taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.
According to Munde's personal staff, the minister was in a "state of shock" following the minor accident.
The driver of the car that hit the minister's vehicle has been arrested and charged for causing death by rash and negligent driving.
Munde, a popular politician from western state Maharashtra, was sworn-in as a federal minister in the Indian cabinet last week.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Munde was a "true mass leader" and the minister's death leaves a "void."
Munde's funeral will take place Wednesday in his hometown of Latur in Maharashtra state.
www.aa.com.tr/en
