Author of US law on India nuclear deal is dead

New Delhi: The man who authored the Indo-US nuclear co-operation legislation, Henry Hyde is dead.

The former US representative died of complications from heart surgery in his sleep early Thursday at the age of 83 in Chicago.

He died at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, said media reports Friday quoting hospital spokeswoman Mary Ann Schultz.

Hyde served in the House from 1975 to 2006, retired in January and underwent open-heart surgery in July.

Hyde retired from Congress at the end of the last session.

Earlier this month, Bush presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

He will be remembered in India as someone who championed her case in the US for the nuclear deal between the two countries.

As the chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee he wrote the nuclear legislation that came to be known as the Henry Hyde United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act.

Hyde is survived by his widow Judy Wolverton and four children.

(With agency inputs)