|
Captain Lakshmi Sehgal
who was
part of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's Indian National Army,
died following a brief illness.
She was 97.
Sehgal was admitted to the hospital on July 19 after she
suffered a heart attack at her residence in Civil Lines area
in Kanpur
.
She was kept on life support system.
She was very active during the Independence movement and
had commanded the 'Rani of Jhansi Regiment' of the INA formed
by Bose.
A doctor by profession, Sehgal was working as a medical
practitioner and a social worker. She was awarded Padma
Vibhushan in 1998.
Born as Lakshmi Swaminathan to noted lawyer Dr S
Swaminathan and social worker Ammu Swaminathan in Chennai on
October 24, 1914, Sehgal obtained her MBBS degree from the
Madras Medical College in 1938.
In 1940, she went to Singapore for further studies before
coming back to India in 1943 to join the INA. She married
Colonel Prem Kumar Sehgal in 1947 and had been residing in
Kanpur since then.Just weeks before falling ill, she used to regularly sit
in her clinic to see patients
.
She would treat everyone who came to her, regardless of whether
the patient had money or not.
Sehgal, who was residing in Kanpur since 1952, was also
very close to her filmmaker grandson Shad Ali, and would
never miss any film directed by him.
Sehgal joined CPI(M) in 1971 and was elected
to Rajya
Sabha on the party's ticket. She also contested the 2002 Presidential polls against Dr
A P J Abdul Kalam as a candidate for Left parties but lost.
|
