RESPECTED Indian community leader and former Tamil Murasu editor V.T. Arasu died early yesterday morning from complications linked to pancreatic cancer.

Mr Arasu, who was 82, leaves behind his wife of 60 years, Mrs Kasturi Thirunavukkarasu, 78, a son, two granddaughters and a grandson.

He died after having some breathing difficulties while warded in the Singapore General Hospital.

Though bed-ridden for the last four months while in hospital, Mr Arasu was active and alert, and his death shocked the community, many of whom described him as a force among Indians here.

Among those at his wake at Mount Vernon last night was a veritable who's who of the Indian community: Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security Professor S Jayakumar and his Cabinet colleagues Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the Education Minister, and Vivian Balakrishnan, the Minister for Community, Youth and Sports were there, as were Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Mr S. Iswaran and J. Y. Pillay, chairman of the Singapore Exchange.

Mr Arasu was born in India in 1926 and came to Singapore in 1951, after which he joined Tamil Murasu as a sub-editor.

Read the full story in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times.