Family, friends mystified over Indian steward's death in Dubai

A young Indian steward working for a leading five-star hotel in Dubai died on Saturday, a day after his friends found him in a critical state at his home and rushed him to the Al Baraha Hospital.

Manikantan, in his late twenties, died on Saturday. Dubai Police is investigating the death that has shocked his friends and family.

“Manikantan lived in a sharing company accommodation in Al Aweer. Normally, he used to sleep through weekends during his weekly offs. On Friday morning, friends living in the camp saw him lying on the sofa. They left for work assuming that he was asleep and did not suspect any foul play. When the colleagues returned home in the evening, they found him lying on the same sofa in a critical condition. He could move his body but could not speak. Friends rushed him to the hospital and he kept murmuring while on the way,” said a colleague of Manikantan who was aware of the death.

The Human Resources Department of the hotel declined to confirm the news. “We have more than 2,000 employees and I haven’t heard of this death,” an HR official told Emirates 24|7.

According to other residents at the company accommodation, Manikantan had his weekly off on Thursday, and is believed to have gone out for a party. “He was very weak and was lying on the same sofa the entire day [Friday]. He was wearing a lungi which does not belong to him. It does not look like a suicide. We feel that his death is a mystery,” said a friend of the deceased.

Manikantan was supposed to go home within the next two months for his housewarming ceremony and was planning to get married. Hailing from Kanjangadu, Pakkam, in Kasargodu district of Kerala, friends and relatives of Manikantan are waiting for the postmortem report to ascertain the reason behind his mysterious death.

“We don’t know whether he fell down somewhere or got injured on Thursday night and someone brought him there,” a friend told Emirates 24|7. He’s been in Dubai for six years, including four years in the hotel.

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