Dubai: A 28-year-old Indian engineer in Dubai, who supported his pregnant wife to file a petition in the Supreme Court of India for early repatriation from the UAE during the COVID-19 lockdown, has died in his sleep, a month after he sent her home from here, according to a media report on Monday.
Nithin Chandran, who is from Kerala, was under treatment for high blood pressure and a heart condition and is suspected to have died of a heart attack while asleep, his friends told Gulf News.
Chandran and his 27-year-old wife Athira Geetha Sreedharan, who is also a Keralite, were in news after pregnant Sreedharan filed a petition in the Supreme Court of India seeking help to return home for her delivery due in the first week of July, amidst the international travel lockdown imposed by India over the coronavirus pandemic.
Chandran had stayed back in Dubai after sending his wife home on the first day of repatriation from Dubai on May 7 under the Vande Bharat Mission.
"We got to know about this from one of his friends, Praveen, who had moved in to Nithin's apartment just a couple of days as he was alone after Athira went home," said Bibin Jacob, a friend of the deceased.
Though the case she filed had no desired impact, Sreedharan, an electronics and communication engineer with an IT equipment company, had managed to get a ticket on the first repatriation flight from Dubai to Kozhikode after the Consul General of India in Dubai Vipul gave high priority to her as she would not have been able to travel later due to the advanced stage of pregnancy, the report said.
"I am shocked to hear about the demise of Nithin whose wife is pregnant and was among the first one to be repatriated on Vande Bharat Mission," Vipul was quoted as saying by the Dubai-based newspaper.
"Nithin worked a lot for the community, especially arranging blood donation camps and volunteering during COVID situation. I give my sincere condolences to the family and hope that they are able to withstand this big and untimely loss," the official said.
The couple had been active in social service as members of the Blood Donors Kerala-UAE chapter and the youth wing of expat organisation Incas.
"His work had been hectic these days. He even discussed with me about resigning and going back home. But whenever he managed to get some time, he came for food kit distribution. He was one of our main coordinators for blood donation here," said Jacob.
Another friend said Chandran had been a pillar of a volunteering group called Emergency Team International in Kerala and continued to support its mobile blood donation drive during the pandemic.
"He had arranged some people to donate blood in his homwtown even today. He had helped save many lives in Kerala and here. It is very tragic that he died without getting help," the report said.
The body was shifted to Rashid Hospital from his apartment in International City for collecting the sample for COVID-19 test before shifting to the police mortuary, it said.
The coronavirus has infected over 70,00,000 people and killed more than 4,00,000 across the world. The US is the worst affected country with over 1.9 million cases and more than 1,10,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
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Jaipur, Mar 28: Young Riyan Parag showed why he is considered a precocious talent as he struck a stunning 84 not out off 45 balls to set up a 12-run win for Rajasthan Royals against Delhi Capitals in their IPL match here on Thursday.
Sent in to bat, RR were reduced to 36 for 3 in the eighth over but the 22-year-old Parag single-handedly took the home side to 185 for 5 with a magnificent unbeaten knock studded with seven fours and six sixes.
Parag, who was promoted to number 4 by the team management this season and made 43 in the previous match, took 25 runs off veteran South African pacer Anrich Nortje with scores of 4, 4, 6, 4, 6, 1 in the final over to hit his highest T20 score.
Chasing 186 for a win, DC could only manage 173 for 5 in 20 overs though South African youngster Tristan Stubbs (44 not out off 23 balls) kept them in the hunt till the final over from which they needed 17 runs.
Avesh Khan conceded just four runs to help RR win their second consecutive match.
South African pacer Nandre Burger and Yuzvendra Chahal took two wickets apiece to also contribute in the RR win.
"Definitely disappointed. The best thing to do from here is to learn from it. The bowlers did well through the 15-16 overs. But the batters did well at the death, hopefully we do better in the next game," DC skipper Rishabh Pant said.
DC were reduced to 34 for 2 in the fourth over with Burger taking two wickets in three balls in a fine display of fast bowling.
Burger, who was brought in as Impact Sub for Shimron Hetmyer, dismissed opener Mitchell Marsh (23 off 12 balls) and Ricky Bhui (0) in the fourth over.
DC captain Rishabh Pant came out to bat at the fall of Bhui's wicket and along with senior batter David Warner built the innings without taking too much risk. Delhi were 89 for 2 at the halfway stage.
Warner was the more aggressive one as he got the boundaries to keep DC in the hunt. The senior Australian batter fell one run short of his fifty courtesy a brilliant diving catch by Sandeep Sharma off the bowling of Avesh in the 12th over.
Warner and Pant were involved in a crucial 67-run partnership for the third wicket.
Playing in his 100th IPL match and 14 months after a horrible car crash, Pant tried to build the innings with occasional boundaries. But he got out for a 26-ball 28 as Chahal induced a faint lower edge for Sanju Samson to do the rest behind the stumps in the 14th over.
The asking rate shot up to more than 13 runs an over and DC needed 66 from the last five overs.
Stubbs kept DC in the game with two consecutive sixes off Ravichandran Ashwin in the 17th over, but in the end the Delhi side were short by 12 runs.
They needed 34 runs from the final two overs which they could not get. It was DC's second consecutive loss.
Earlier, Parag shared 54 and 52 runs respectively with Ravichandran Ashwin (29) and Dhruv Jurel (20) after RR made a shaky start.
Royals captain Samson struck three consecutive boundaries in the fourth over bowled by pacer Mukesh Kumar before nicking a Khaleel Ahmed delivery two overs later to Pant to get out for 15.
RR were 30 for 2 by then as Mukesh had given DC their first breakthrough with the wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal (5).
The Royals were in more trouble after wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav literally forced his captain Pant to take a review, which later proved to be successful, to dismiss Englishman Jos Buttler for an LBW decision.
Ashwin came out to bat at number five and he lofted a Kuldeep delivery for a six to help RR reach 58 for 3 at halfway stage. He gave Nortje even a harsher treatment with two sixes in the next over that yielded 15 runs.
Ashwin, however, holed out to Tristan Stubbs near the boundary ropes for a 19-ball 29.
Parag then made his presence felt, striking two boundaries and a six off Ahmed to take RR past 100 in the 15th over.