New Delhi: Athletics coach Purshottam Rai died due to a cardiac arrest on Friday, a day before he was to be conferred with the prestigious Dronacharya Award.

"He took part in the rehearsal for the National Sports Awards but later suffered heart attack and passed away," a top source from AFI told PTI. He was 79.

The awards ceremony will be held virtually on Saturday due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Jamshedpur, Jan 12: A four-member team headed by Jharkhand State Minority Commission (JSMC) chairman Hedayatullah Khan was formed to probe into the alleged mob lynching of a man in Seraikela-Kharswan district in December last year, officials said on Sunday.

JSMC has taken cognizance of the incident after All India Minority Welfare Front spokesman Sarfraz Hussain, in a letter, demanded a judicial enquiry into the alleged mob lynching of Sheikh Tazuddin in Adityapur.

"We have formed a four-member team headed by Khan on Saturday and decided to investigate the matter," a top functionary of the commission said.

The team will visit Kapali on Monday to meet the deceased's family members to get details of the incident, Khan said.

The JSMC team will also hold a meeting with senior district officials at Kapali Town Council auditorium to seek details of an action taken report in this connection, he said.

Tazuddin was seriously injured after he was allegedly beaten up by a group of unidentified persons in Sapra under the Adityapur Police Station limits on December 8 and later, he succumbed to his injuries in a hospital.

Khan said the JSMC had sought the action taken report from Seraikela-Kharswan district's superintendent of police on December 26 last year but was yet to receive any response.

SP Mukesh Kumar Lunayat had on Wednesday said the sub-divisional police officer (Seraikela) has been entrusted with the investigation and asked to submit a report, which was still underway.

However, four accused had been surrendered before a court here.

The SP had said Tazuddin died in the course of treatment in the hospital about a week after the incident.