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Pune: One of the tallest leaders of our time, Sitaram Yechury, the  General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), passed away today that is on September 12, 2024 at the age of 72.

Mr Yechuri was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi on August 19 with pneumonia.

In a statement, AIIMS said that Sitaram Yechury's family donated his body to the hospital for teaching and research purposes.

Yechury had been undergoing treatment for an acute respiratory tract infection at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi, where he was admitted to the Emergency Ward on August 19.

An alumnus of Delhi's St Stephen's College and Jawaharlal Nehru University, Mr Yechury started his political career with the Students' Federation of India and joined the CPIM in 1975. He was pursuing his doctorate in Economics from JNU when the Indira Gandhi government imposed the Emergency in 1975 and he was arrested along with many other leaders who would later play a key role in national politics. His PhD remained incomplete.

Mr Yechury was elected president of the JNU Student's Union thrice in a year after he was out of jail. It was during this time that he also met Prakash Karat, who would remain a lifelong comrade