V. Kumaraswami, former director in-charge of the Tuberculosis Research Centre (TRC), an institute of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in Chennai, died in a road accident in Vellore on Friday.
He had served at TRC, presently National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis, for over 30 years. He was the director in-charge of TRC during the last two years of his service.
Simultaneously, he was director-in-charge of the National Institute of Epidemiology, another ICMR institute, M.S. Jawahar, his former colleague at the TRC, said. Alumni of Government Stanley Medical College Hospital, Dr. Kumaraswami carved a niche for himself nationally as well as internationally in the field of healthcare. He is an internationally recognised expert in lymphatic filariasis, he said.
Dr. Kumaraswami, a resident of Shenoy Nagar in Chennai, was killed after the car in which he was travelling met with an accident on the Bengaluru-Chennai National Highway 48 near Thottalam village, Ambur, on Friday.
His wife Lakshmi, mother Kamala and Mohanraj, who was driving the vehicle, were also died in the accident. Police said the car jumped over the median after one of its tyres burst and rammed a lorry in the opposite lane. They were travelling from Bengaluru to Chennai.
