Somnath's body to be donated to hospital

Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who died on Monday in a clinic, will be accorded a gun salute at the West Bengal Assembly. Later, his body will be donated to the state-run SSKM Hospital in line with his pledge.

First his body would be taken to the Calcutta High Court, with which he was associated for a long time. "Then it will be taken to the State Assembly where we will give him the gun salute, the highest honour of the state," Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said.

"Later his body will be taken to his residence and then to the SSKM hospital," she said.

Chatterjee had pledged to donate his body to the medical college in 2002.

The former Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader died at the Bellevue Clinic, where he was admitted on August 7 after a heart attack. He was also suffering from a kidney-related ailment.

--IANS

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