A pastry-eating competition in the canteen of a multinational IT company in Udyog Vihar cost a young engineer his life on Wednesday afternoon. Twenty-two-year-old Saurabh Sabharwal, who reportedly choked to death, was found unconscious in the washroom after having eaten many pastries. He was rushed to a private hospital where the doctors declared him dead.
RK Sabharwal, father of Saurabh who was a solution engineer with Nokia-Siemens Network, blamed the company for organising the competition. "Why did they have to organise such a competition?" he said. An official from Nokia-Siemens Network present at Max Hospital refused to speak to HT.
In his statement to the police, RK Sabharwal said he received a call at 2.35 p.m. that his son was not well and had been rushed to Max Hospital in Gurgaon.
"When I reached the hospital, I was told he had died. When I enquired from his colleagues Devender Pal Singh and one Mr Minocha told me there was a pastry competition organized by the company where Saurabh was participating. Suddenly he rushed to the washroom where his friends found him lying unconscious," he said .
Dr Sushma Sharma, medical advisor with Max, Sushant Lok, said Saurabh died of asphyxiation as the pastry choked his windpipe. "We received a call from Nokia-Siemens Network that one of their employees had fainted and was rushed to our hospital," said Sharma. Hospital authorities claimed he was dead when he was brought in.
SHO Surender Singh action would be taken after the postmortem report comes in.