Eminent Journalist Dileep Padgaonkar Passes Away

Eminent journalist Dileep Padgaonkar, who played a key role as an interlocuter in the three member group on Jammu Kashmir in 2008, passed away in Pune after a brief illness. He was 72.

Padgaonkar was on ventilator support for the last one week and all efforts to revive him proved futile. Born in Pune in 1944, Padgaonkar graduated from Fergusson College and began working as a journalist with Times of India. He was its Paris correspondent and went on to become its editor in 1988. After being an editor for six years, he resigned his post.

Padgaonkar was appointed as one of the members of the three-member interlocutors group on Jammu and Kashmir, set up by the government after continuous unrest in the Valley in 2008. Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the death of Padgaonkar, saying he was a leading public thinker whose contribution to journalism will always be remembered. Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, eminent journalists Rajdeep Sardesai, Siddharth Varadarajan and others also condoled his death.