Footballer suffers 'cardiac arrest' during match

Kolkata: Ritwik Das (22) a young footballer from Odisha, died while playing football on the Sports Authority of India (SAI) campus in Salt Lake on Saturday afternoon.

It is suspected that he died due to a sudden cardiac arrest.

Das, a student of National Law University Odisha (NLUO), had come to Benagl to participate in the festival organised by the National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) Kolkata. The event had started on Friday and was about to conclude on Sunday.

According to sources, the NLUO football team was playing against Christ University of Bengaluru. Ritwik collapsed on the field while playing. Immediately, the referee stopped the game and he was taken out of the field by his teammates. In the side line he was given water and other players tried to comfort Ritwik. Meanwhile, the medic at SAI was informed. He reached the field within few minutes and examined him.

Following that he opined that Ritwik need to be admitted at the earliest. Immediately he was rushed to the AMRI hospital just opposite to the SAI Complex where doctors declared Riwik brought dead. Bidhannagar South police station and officials and interim Vice-Chancellor (VC) of NUJS Justice (Retd.) Amit Talukdar were informed immediately. Police later sent the body for autopsy examination and informed Das's family.

Upon getting the news, V-C and other officials decided to stop the festival immediately. On Saturday night, Rashmi Ranjan Das, father of Ritwik Das, who is an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, arrived in Kolkata. After completing all the necessary procedures, he left the city with Das's body in the afternoon.