Radha Vinod Raju, the founding Director General of National Investigation Agency (NIA), died at a private hospital here early on Thursday after a prolonged illness.

He was 62 and leaves behind his wife and two daughters.

Raju, who hails from Kerala, was being treated by an oncologist here for the past one year. Since January, he suffered from recurring bouts of pneumonia and was admitted to a private hospital here a week ago for lung infection, hospital sources said.

He was in the Intensive Care Unit and was on put on non invasive ventilator when the end came at 3:40 AM, they said.

Raju served as the first chief of NIA, which was set up following the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.

A 1975 batch IPS officer of Jammu and Kashmir cadre, Raju handled the case of US citizen Lashkar-e-Taiba operative David Headley and also functioned as Director General (Vigilance) of Jammu and Kashmir.

Considered as one of the finest officers, Raju was associated with the probes into Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, hijacking of Indian Airlines plane to Kandahar in 1999 and Naval war room leak.