Indian-origin student froze to death near a nightclub in US
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New York: An 18-year-old Indian-origin college student in the US died from freezing temperatures near a club where he was denied entry.
Akul Dhawan was on a night out with friends when the first-year student at University of Illinois in Urbana died from hypothermia, a press release by Champaign County Coroner’s Office said on February 20.
Dhawan and his friends were denied entry to Canopy Club near his campus when they tried to reenter the club at around 11.30 pm, The Indian Express reported based on The Kansas City Star, citing a surveillance video.
The US newspaper reported that Dhawan tried to enter the club ‘multiple times but was repeatedly denied by staff’.
The report further said that he refused two rideshare vehicles that were called for him.
A friend of Dhawan’s alerted the campus police at 1.23 pm after calls to him went unanswered and police couldn’t locate him nevertheless searching.
Dhawan was found ‘laying on concrete steps’ at 11 am the following day just as the temperatures in the area plummeted to around -2 degrees Celcius.
He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the coroner’s office.
The coroner’s office further said that ‘acute alcohol intoxication and prolonged exposure to extremely cold temperatures, significantly contributed to his death,’ reported The Kansas City Star.
Dhawan’s family wrote an open letter in a local newspaper saying that they “believe that the police never searched for our son.’
‘We have been asking why Akul was found 10 hours later, rather than immediately after he was reported missing, when he could still be saved,’ the letter read.
The family pointed out that Dhawan was found less than 200 feet away from where he was reported missing.
