Mumbai: Former Union Home Minister and veteran Congress leader S B Chavan died here today after a prolonged illness.

Eighty-year-old Chavan underwent a surgery at a city hospital for removal of blood clot in brain on February 20. He was in a critical condition and on life support system since last few days, hospital sources said.

The end came at 3:55 pm, the sources said.

Chavan's body will be taken to his Sagar residence at Narayan Dabholkar Road in South Mumbai to enable people to pay their last respects.

Later, the body will be flown to Nanded by a Defence aircraft and the cremation will take place there tomorrow (Feb 27, 2004), family sources said.

Chavan's condition became critical after the operation for removal of blood clot a few days ago, the sources added.