Indian-Origin Student Freezes to Death after Denied Entry by Nightclub in US

An 18-year-old Indian-American student, Akul Dhawan, died in January after reportedly going missing for several hours. The Champaign County Coroner’s Office in Illinois said this week that the Indian-American student died of hypothermia following “acute alcohol intoxication and prolonged exposure to freezing temperatures”.

The deceased was a student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the US. He was found dead on January 20 on the back porch of a building near the university campus in west Urbana in the US state of Illinois.

On January 20, at around 11.30 pm, Akul was out for drinks with friends. They decided to go to the Canopy Club, near the campus. But the staff at the club denied him entry. He tried to enter the club “multiple times” but was repeatedly denied by staff,” investigators said.

Illinois and much of the midwest experienced brutal cold and freezing temperatures in the latter half of January, with wind chills dipping between -20 to -30 degrees.

The next morning, an employee of the university notified police and emergency medical services found of “a man on the back porch of a building”. Police said that he was “dead at the time he was found”.

According to reports, Akul was admitted to the University of Illinois’ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering to study robotics.