IIT Professor Dies While Delivering Speech At Alumni Meet; What Were His Last Words?

Kanpur: A senior professor of IIT Kanpur died after suffering a cardiac arrest while delivering a speech at the university.

The 55-year-old Sameer Khandekar was speaking at an alumni meet at the IIT Kanpur auditorium on Friday when tragedy struck.

Khandekar, head of Mechanical Engineering department, was talking about ways to maintain good health, and one of his last words to students was, “Take care of your health.”

He suddenly felt uneasy and experienced pain in his chest. As he sat down for some time, the audience had no idea what was to follow.

Khandekar then began to sweat and collapsed on the stage.

He was rushed to the hospital but was declared brought dead, according to Dr Neeraj Kumar.

“After going through his medical history and examining him, we can say that he either died due to cardiac arrest or cardiac block. Specific details will be known in the post-mortem report,” he told India Today/Aaj Tak.

Khandekar — survived by his parents, wife and a son studying in Cambridge University — had been diagnosed with high cholesterol about five years ago, PTI quoted another IIT Kanpur professor as saying.

Born in Jabalpur, Khandekar did his B.Tech from IIT Kanpur and pursued his Ph.D in Germany.

He joined IIT Kanpur as an assistant professor in 2004, then became an associate professor and was later appointed as Department Head of Mechanical Engineering Department and Student Welfare Dean. He has eight patents to his name.