SRINAGAR — Prof Dr Rita Jitendra, who was the main guest at Doordarshan Srinagar’s ‘Good Morning Kashmir’ choked while talking in a live show. She was later rushed to hospital, where doctors pronounced her dead on arrival.

“She was talking and she suffered a heart attack and started snoring,” one of the DD employees who was around the studio said. “It shocked all and we drove her to the hospital where she was declared brought dead.”

Prof Rita Jitendra was a renowned artist, writer, social activist and former Secretary of J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages. A resident of Jammu, her husband was a Deputy Secretary in the Academy and had died young, Academy sources said. 

“We had invited her for an Academy function where she was supposed to read out a story – an Afsana, on Tuesday, Aziz Hajni, secretary Academy said. “Today she was invited by DD for the morning show where she suffered an attack and died.”

Her body was flown to Jammu in the afternoon.