NEW DELHI: Former Union minister
Arun Jaitley died at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on Saturday, the hospital announced.
Jaitley, 66, was undergoing treatment at the hospital for several weeks.
"It is with profound grief that we inform about the sad demise of Arun Jaitley," the AIIMS said in a brief statement.
Jaitley, a lawyer by profession, had been an important part in Prime Minister
Narendra Modi's Cabinet in the BJP government's first term. He held the finance and defence portfolios, and often acted as the chief troubleshooter of the government.
In May this year, Jaitley was admitted to AIIMS for treatment.
Jaitley did not contest the 2019
Lok Sabha
election presumably because of his ill-health.
He had undergone a renal transplant on May 14 last year at AIIMS with Railways Minister
Piyush Goyal filling in for him in the finance ministry at that time.
Jaitley, who had stopped attending office since early April last year, was back in the finance ministry on August 23, 2018.
In September 2014, he underwent
bariatric surgery
to correct the weight he had gained because of a long-standing diabetic condition.
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