Bengaluru: Governor of Karnataka Thawarchand Gehlot and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai paid their final tributes to Kannada superstar Puneeth Rajkumar this morning.
The iconic actor passed away in Bengaluru hospital on Friday at the age of 46 due to a cardiac arrest. Rajkumar was admitted to the city's Vikram Hospital at 11.30 am after complaining of chest pain.
The eyes of the iconic actor were donated to a donation centre, named after his father late Rajkumar, located at Narayana Nethralaya.
A person carrying a box containing the eyes of Puneeth Rajkumar. | Twitter
Rajkumar's last rites are likely to be performed on Saturday, said Kamal Pant, Commissioner of Police (CP) Bengaluru today.
Grieving fans of Kannada star gathered at Bengaluru's Sree Kanteerava Stadium to pay their last respects, prior to his final rites which will be done with state honours, soon after his daughter arrives from the US.
Karnataka CM, on the other hand, has stated that Puneeth Rajkumar's last rites will be done with state honours.
His mortal remains were shifted to the stadium for public viewing, where a large number of fans could be seen waiting to get one last view of their favourite actor. A heavy police force has been deployed at the stadium to control the crowd.
ANI Photo
ANI Photo
The demise of Puneeth took the entire country by shock and several popular actors from Bollywood and South film industry including Dhanush, Mahesh Babu, Jr NTR, Ram Charan, Abhishek Bachchan, Anil Kapoor, among others, have expressed their condolences.
Apart from that, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other noted politicians including Rahul Gandhi, Prakash Javadekar and Nirmala Sitharaman also mourned his death.
With Agencies Input
