Jagdish Khattar, former Maruti MD, dies of cardiac arrest at age 79

Jagdish Khattar's tenure saw Maruti establish itself as India's largest car company.

Jagdish Khattar, who led Maruti Suzuki as the automaker’s managing director for eight years, has died of cardiac arrest. He was 79.

Khattar’s tenure saw Maruti establish itself as India’s largest car company. Khattar, after retiring from Maruti in October 2007, launched an entrepreneurial venture, Carnation Auto, a multi-brand automobile service network also dealing in used car business.

"This is a deep personal loss and has come as a big shock. We had worked together for many years. He is someone who had done a lot of good for Maruti," R C Bhargava, the company's chairman, told CNBC-TV18 about Bhargava’s death.

A Business Standard story profiling Maruti said in 2014 Khattar was a former bureaucrat and "a rank outsider" who was brought in to the company in 1993 as "officer on special duty".

Khattar, before joining Maruti and as a civil servant, was the joint secretary in the steel ministry, and he worked at various administrative positions in the Uttar Pradesh government.