The preliminary investigations by the police suggest the deceased, identified as Vinod Kumar, died due to asphyxia. His legs, however, bore severe burn injuries.

Station House Officer (SHO) of Sector-39 police station, Inspector Janak Rana, ruled out any foul play behind the death.

He said the victim used to smoke bidi. “It appears the victim had thrown a lighted bidi under his bed at night which later caused the fire,” he added.

The deceased’s cousin, who was sleeping in the adjacent room on Sunday night, said: “When I saw smoke coming into my room, I went outside and discovered the fire in his room. The door was bolted from inside.”

He added: “My house owner, an advocate in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, came upstairs immediately and helped douse the flames.”

The victim was rushed to the Government Multi-Specialty Hospital, Sector 16, where he was declared dead on arrival.

Aman Kashyap, the owner of the house, said the victim had been working at his place as a domestic help for the past 10 months.

“When I discovered the fire in Vinod’s room, I called the fire brigade immediately who helped me douse the flames. We rushed the victim to the hospital but it was too late by then,” he said.

The Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) team visited the house and collected the samples.