Senior Aaj Tak journalist Rohit Sardana succumbs to COVID

New Delhi: Rohit Sardana, popular news anchor at Aaj Tak, succumbed to COVID infection on Friday. He had tested positive for the Coronavirus and suffered a heart attack on Friday morning.

In a Tweet, Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary informed about his untimely demise. He said that he never thought the virus would take away someone so close to him. He said he was not prepared for this.

Sardana had hosted the popular 'Taal Thok Ke', a debate programme that discusses contemporary issues in India on Zee News. He left Zee News to join Aaj Tak in 2017 and, since then was hosting the debate show ''Dangal.''

Sardana was a recipient of the 2018 Ganesh Vidyarthi Puraskar Award.  After the news of death of Sardana, condolences started pouring in.

Senior Journalist Rajdeep Sardesai took to twitter and wrote,"Rohit and I had differing political views but always enjoyed debating without any rancour. We did a show one night that finished at 3 am (think it was SC verdict on Karnataka) after which he said, 'boss aaj maza aa gaya!' He was a passionate anchor journalist. RIP Rohit Sardana."

Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala in a tweet said, "Deeply saddened and shocked to hear about the demise of Aaj Tak journalist Rohit Sardana. It's simply unbelievable. Rohit had recovered from Covid-19 and was back at work. My heartfelt condolences to the family members and Aaj Tak group."

Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill also took to twitter and wrote, "Completely shocked on hearing the news about passing away of my dear friend Rohit Sardana - spoke to him last Sunday and he was in great spirits!! Still can't come to terms with this - will forever cherish our after debate conversations, rest in peace "bhaji"."