Mumbai: At first, a producer in Mumbai Patrick Anand thought he had dialled a wrong number when a cop answered his friend's phone. "It's urgent. Please report to Versova police station," the constable told Anand.
Anand was unaware that the friend he was calling had died in a freak incident.
"Preliminary investigations revealed that Savio Rodrigues, commercial director with an advertising firm, died in the wee hours of Sunday," said an official of Versova police station. "He consumed liquor the previous night. It seems he lit a cigarette and dozed off thereafter. The inflammable liquor could have caused the fire."
The police found a couple of empty bottles, a pack of cigarettes and a lighter in Rodrigues's home where he was found with 80 per cent burn injuries.
Rodrigues, a bachelor, lived in a rented flat in Royal Apartments, Versova for the past one year. The police were alerted by neighbours when they got the stench of burning flesh from his third floor apartment.
"One of his neighbours called us up. We used a duplicate set of keys to open the door," said Police Inspector Kalpana Gadekar.
A case of accidental death has been registered and the body has been sent to Cooper Hospital, Vile Parle for a post-mortem. Rodrigues's relatives in Goa have been informed about his death.
One of his college friends said Rodrigues lost his parents when he was 12. "He has no siblings and shared a close relationship with his grandmother who passed away a few years ago," the friend said. "He struggled hard to become a director."
An acquaintance of Rodrigues who did not wish to be named said that after work, Rodrigues spent most evenings consuming liquor and was also a regular smoker.