Sardar's brother's coffin handed over to memorial

Karamsad, Gujarat, Oct 22 (UNI) The coffin of late Vithalbhai Patel, freedom fighter and brother of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, was today handed over to Veer Vithalbhal Patel memorial by Gujarat Health Minister Jaynarayan Vyas.

Speaking at a function to mark the occasion, Mr Vyas said the coffin has been preserved here and now, it is being handed over to the Veer Vithalbhai Patel Memorial so that general public can have 'darshans' of the great leader, who was also the first Lok Sabha speaker.

The body of Vithalbhai, who died in Switzerland in 1933, was sent to India in a coffin by Netaji Subhash chandra Bose.

The coffin was lying at Health Center here for the last 75 years.

It is a momento, which will remind people and new generation of the dedication, martyrdom and patriotism of late Vithalbhai Patel and Subhash Chandra Bose.

Vithalbhai Patel (1871 - 22 October 1933) was a legislator and political leader, and co-founder of the Swaraj Party. Born in Nadiad in Gujarat, he was the third of five Patel brothers and four years elder to Vallabhbhai Patel. He was raised in the village of Karamsad in Kaira district of Central Gujarat.

Vithalbhai got educated in Nadiad and Mumbai (erstwhile Bombay), and worked as a pleader (a junior lawyer) in the courts of Godhra and Borsad. At a very young age, he was married to a girl from another village, Diwaliba.

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