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Kerala expat whose pregnant wife was evacuated in May, dies in Sharjah
Nithin Chandran was found dead in his flat in Sharjah when his friends went looking for him after he did not answer calls.
A young man from Kerala working in the UAE, whose pregnant wife took the first Vande Bharat flight out of Dubai for the delivery of their first child, died in his sleep on Sunday, a month after she left, his friends said.
Doctors in Dubai said he died of cardiac arrest but his sample will be tested for Covid-19. His friends said if he tests negative for Covid-19, his body will be flown home in a couple of days.
Nithin Chandran (29) and his wife Athira Geeetha Sreedharan (26), hit the headlines after the latter filed a petition in the Supreme Court for evacuation saying her delivery was due in July and aviation laws do not permit her to fly after seven months of pregnancy. The court later disposed of her plea after the Centre informed it about its decision to evacuate stranded people abroad through the Vande Bharat mission.
Nithin was also offered a ticket to travel along with his wife on the first flight by Congress legislator from Palakkad Shafi Parambil through a collective of NRIs but he gave away the open ticket to another needy person and sponsored two other tickets, his friends said.
His wife also shared this information with the Hindustan Times on her arrival on May 8 in Kozhikode in north Kerala.
“We are really shocked. He was a Good Samaritan and was in the forefront of the NRI collective in the UAE. He was also offered a ticket by the legislator through the Indian Cultural and Arts Society (INCAS) but he gave it to another person who was really ailing. Later he sponsored two other tickets also,” said one of his friends P Praveen.
He also said Nithin was suffering from high blood pressure for some time.
He was found dead in his flat in Sharjah when his friends went looking for him after he did not answer calls.
A mechanical engineer, Nithin was working with a private construction firm in Dubai. Athira, an electronics engineer, was working with an IT firm in Sharjah.
Hailing from Kozhikkode they got married in 2018. Their friends said both were active in social service and members of the Blood Donors Club in UAE, affiliated to INCAS, an organisation owing allegiance to the Congress Party. “I am really shocked. Last month I talked to him several times. Service was in his blood,” said Shafi Parambhil.
