Gurgaon: Man charred after car catches fire, CNG leakage suspected to be trigger

Police have not ruled out possibility of criminal motive; question family to check for personal enemies

A 56-year-old man was charred to death after his sedan caught fire near Garhi Harsaru village in Gurgaon on Friday.

Victim Subeh Singh was in the driver’s seat and was talking on the phone when the car caught fire.

Police suspect a leakage in the compressed natural gas (CNG) kit may have caused the fire but are not ruling out the possibility of a criminal motive either.

The victim Subeh Singh, a resident of Gandhi Nagar in Sector 11, was a property dealer.

According to the police, eyewitnesses informed them that around 3.45 pm, Singh was sitting inside his Maruti Suzuki Esteem car and had parked it under a tree, near his office, when the incident happened.

Singh, who was in the driver’s seat, was seen talking to someone on the phone when the car suddenly caught fire from the front.

Singh attempted to escape through the front door but the central locking system malfunctioned.

He tried to open the car from the back also but was unsuccessful and was burnt to death.

“People from Singh’s office saw the fire and started dousing the flames but were unable to save him. We haven’t ruled out the possibility of malice but prima facie, it appeared that the car’s CNG kit had a leakage, leading to the fire. Investigations are on,” ASI Satpal of Sector 10 A police station and the investigating officer in the case said.

The incident took place just weeks after a man was charred to death when a white Maruti Swift Dzire car caught fire near Ullahawas village on March 11.

In this case also, police suspect leakage in the CNG kit might have been the cause of the fire. The deceased’s body was found in the passenger seat.

On September 1, 2017, in a similar incident, three men, all residents of Palra village, burnt to death after their sedan caught fire near Ullahawas village.

Two of the men sitting in the front seats lost consciousness when smoke emanated from the vehicle.

The man in the back seat seemed to have made an effort to escape but failed since the central locking system seemed to have jammed.

Police suspected leakage in the CNG kit as the cause of the fire in this incident as well.