His family, though, claims he was murdered. On Saturday, his mother Amrit Kaur said personal enmity could be behind the killing, for Chawla, she stressed, had “many enemies” since he was in the realty brokerage business. Chawla’s car (a white Santro) was found charred, some 4 km from the spot where his body was discovered.

The police said the deceased left home — in Satya Niketan, South Delhi — on Wednesday for a wedding. His family registered a missing case at the RK Puram police station when Chawla didn’t return by late Wednesday night.

A senior officer from RK Puram police station said a call was received around 3.30 am, Thursday, about a burnt Santro car in front of Central School in Sector 8, RK Puram. “The call was made by a bystander,” the officer said. “Some three hours later, around 6.30 am, we got another call from another bystander informing us about a body lying in Sector 2, near Africa Avenue.”

The police took him — Chawla’s family later identified him — to AIIMS. He was declared dead on arrival, the officer said. A preliminary examination found no external injuries. Doctors said there was a lot of alcohol and “external substances” in the body — the latter could mean a drug overdose, they said.

The officer said it was found that Chawla had gone to a friend’s son’s wedding at a farmhouse in Dabri on Wednesday where he had apparently consumed a lot of alcohol. It is still not clear how his car caught fire, though the police are not ruling out any possibilities, including suicide.

Chawla’s mother Amrit Kaur said: “He had received several threats to his life in the past few days. We had informed the police but they didn’t take any action. My son had many enemies; I know he was murdered.”

Nephew Gurwinder Singh said, “He was into property dealing and obviously had a lot of enemies. A property dispute could have led to the murder.”

DCP (South) H G S Dhaliwal said investigations are on. “But doctors have so far not found any external injuries — the death could be a result of either poisoning or a drug overdose.”

His mother, wife and four children survive Chawla — the family lives at 173, Satya Niketan. The family said his eldest son Karan is pursuing a course in hotel management in Australia; son Kunal has finished Class XII, daughter Shefali in Class X and the youngest child, son Kamaljeet, is in Class IV.