Former Defence Minister George Fernandes passed away on Tuesday, 29 January, at the age of 88, family sources confirmed to The Quint.

Fernandes was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for a long time, which had forced him out of the public eye for several years. According to media reports, Fernandes had also contracted swine flu recently.

He had served as the defence minister in the NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee between 1998 and 2004. He stepped down from his post after the ‘coffingate’ scandal broke out.

His last stint as a parliamentarian was as a Rajya Sabha MP between August 2009 and July 2010.