New Delhi, June 11 :     Senior Congress leader Rajesh Pilot's promising career came to an abrupt and tragic end when his jeep collided with a bus in his Lok Sabha constituency Dausa, 90 km from Jaipur. Pilot was rushed to the SMS Medical College Hospital in Jaipur, but succumbed to injury. The body is being flown to the capital tonight for cremation tomorrow. The former Indian Air Force pilot-turned-politician suffered multiple injuries on his head, chest and face when his jeep collided head-on with a Rajasthan Road Transport bus at 4.45 pm. Pilot was to catch a Jet Airways flight to Delhi this evening. Sources said Pilot was himself driving the jeep. A former minister for internal security, Pilot was earlier given Z+ security which was recently downgraded. There was no talk of any foul play but newspapers received an anonymous fax late at night pointing an accusing finger at a controversial godman. Mahant Sewa Dass Singh, president of Pheruman Akali Dal, demanded a probe into events leading to the accident. 'This is not a simple accident. His security was down-graded very recently despite threats to his life,' he said. The mahant was a key witness before the Jain Commission which also probed Rajiv Gandhi's assassination. Congress president Sonia Gandhi rushed to Jaipur on a special flight which also carried Pilot's widow, Rama. A huge crowd of Pilot's supporters thronged the hospital as news of his death broke. Many of them were in tears. A pall of gloom descended on Pilot's 10 Akbar Road residence in Delhi. Politicians cutting across parties, relatives and friends rushed to his house, but there was no one to accept the condolences. The Congress Working Committee will hold a condolence meeting tomorrow. Besides his politician wife Rama, a Congress MLA, the 55-year-old Pilot is survived by a son and a daughter. His daughter married recently. Forever a rebel, Pilot was known for his outspokenness and candid views. Having opposed former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and former party chief Sitaram Kesri, Pilot was planning to take on Sonia in the ensuing organisational polls. The sudden end to his career has created a void in the Congress, lacking in leaders outside the Nehru-Gandhi family. An able parliamentarian, Pilot was a strong votary of probity and ethics in public life. He was bitterly opposed to the Congress' alliance with Jayalalitha and Rabri Devi. Sources in Jaipur said Pilot was brought to the hospital with multiple injuries. His heart had also stopped beating. One of his gunmen died on the spot. Three other persons were injured. Formerly known as Rajeshwar Prasad, Pilot had represented Dausa in Lok Sabha for six terms. He had become squadron leader in the Indian Air Force, which he quit in 1979. President K.R. Narayanan, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, former Prime Minister V.P. Singh and other political leaders expressed shock at Pilot's death, saying he was firmly committed to the cause of the downtrodden. Hailing from Ghaziabad, Pilot was born in a poor family on February 10, 1945. After he lost his armyman-father Jai Dayal Singh at an early age, Pilot was brought up by his brother who sold milk in affluent Delhi localities. The Congress leader's autobiography, Flight to Parliament, narrates how he rose from selling milk to MPs on chilly winter mornings to becoming an MP himself in 1980. Pilot got his ministerial break in the Rajiv Gandhi government when he was made minister of state for transport. He held the communications, home (internal security) and environment portfolios in the Narasimha Rao government between 1991 and 1996.