Hotelier Lalit Suri to be cremated tomorrow

NEW DELHI: Leading hotelier and Rajya Sabha member Lalit Suri, who died in London on Tuesday after a massive heart attack, will be cremated on Thursday morning at capital's Nigambodh Ghat.

Family sources said the body of the deceased chairman of Bharat Hotels was flown in from London and is being kept at his residence in Panchsheel Park for people to pay respect before the cremation.

The cremation will take place at 10 Thursday morning, they added.

Suri is survived by his wife, three daughters and a son. His wife Jyotsna, the Joint Managing Director of the group, was with him when he died in London.

Suri, often referred to as the "uncrowned hotel king of India", was born on April 15, 1947, in Pakistan's Rawalpindi.

He was elected to the Rajya Sabha as an independent from Uttar Pradesh in January 2003.

Suri was a member of a several parliamentary committees including that of Defence and Science and Technology. Recently, he introduced a private members bill in the Upper House demanding a raise in MPs' salary.

Trained as an automobile engineer, he joined the family-run Delhi Automobile Ltd in 1971. When the group diversified into hospitality business in 1982, Suri became its Joint Managing Director.

Suri commissioned his first hotel in the capital in 1988 and later became one of the prominent hoteliers establishing a network of hotels across the country, including in Delhi, Bangalore and Khajuraho.