Engineer, friend returning from party charred to death as car catches fire

NOIDA: Two friends – one an engineer and another a businessman – were charred to death when the car in which they were returning from a party went up in flames in Sector 119 early on Saturday, trapping them inside.
Fire department officials said a short circuit in the car’s air conditioner may have caused the fire, locking the doors automatically. According to them, a guard deployed at the main gate of Amrapali Platinum – where one of the car’s occupants was to get off – called up the fire department at 6.25am to inform them that a white Swift was up in flames on the nearby road.

“A team rushed to the spot along with a fire tender.When the flames were doused, we found two bodies inside. They were charred,” said Pradeep Kumar Chaubey, the chief fire officer. The car, police said, was registered in Ghaziabad. The two men were identified as Vijay Chaudhary (27), a resident of Amrapali Platinum, and Anas (27), who lived in Sector 53.
Chaudhary, who was behind the wheel, was a software engineer at a private firm while his friend ran a furniture business, police said. The car belonged to Chaudhury. “CCTV footage showed the car arriving outside the society at 6.08am. It stood there for a couple of minutes and caught fire all of a sudden,” said Shakti Avasthy, additional deputy commissioner of police.

Since it was so early on a wintry morning, there was hardly anyone on the road. “The bodies were sent for an autopsy and handed over to families after that,” Avasthy said. Chaudhury, police said, had left home around 11pm on Friday, telling his family he was going to attend a friend’s birthday party. He picked Anas on the way. They returned early in the morning and stopped near Amrapali Platinum for a few minutes. The car then caught fire.

It was not immediately clear why the two childhood friends had stopped the Swift outside the society. “Forensic and technical teams have collected samples from the site. We are investigating how the car caught fire. There hasn’t been any complaint yet,” the ADCP said.