India's former union minister, Jaswant Singh, died in Delhi on Sunday morning at the age of 82 after suffering a heart attack.
The Army Research and Referral Hospital confirmed the news, adding that Singh had been a patient since 25 June.
“Major Jaswant Singh (Retd), former cabinet minister, passed away at 6:55 am [Sunday] of a cardiac arrest,” the hospital said in a statement.
He had originally been admitted at the end of June to be treated for Sepsis with Multi-organ Dysfunction Syndrome. The hospital added that he tested negative for COVID-19.
After suffering a bad fall at home in 2014, Singh had been in and out of the hospital regularly over the past six years.
Singh had served as India's foreign minister, defence minister and finance minister in the government of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
He first served as finance minister in Vajpayee's short-lived government of 1996. Later, in the next Vajpayee-led government (1998-2002), Singh was put in charge of external affairs; later he was given the role of India’s defence minister.
Several leaders, including India's Prime Minister and BJP member Narendra Modi, have taken to Twitter to express their condolences.