4 min readMay 30, 2026 08:48 AM IST
Gaurav Kumar, a tour and travel startup founder, had landed in Delhi from London on May 26 with grand plans to celebrate his father Dhanendra Kumar’s birthday — first at the Delhi Gymkhana Club on May 30 and then a bigger one in London on June 6, when the retired IAS officer, who served as Executive Director at the World Bank and became the first Chairman of the Competition Commission of India, turned 80.
Flight tickets had already been booked for Gaurav and his parents’ journey on June 3. But fate had other plans.
Late Tuesday, Dhanendra breathed his last at AIIMS Trauma Centre, after inhaling poisonous smoke from a fire suspected to have been triggered by an explosion in an air conditioner at his three-floor house in Hauz Khas’s R block. The AC, 12 years old, was serviced a week before Gaurav came home, said police.
Gaurav, meanwhile, remains admitted to the hospital.
Abhishek, a domestic help who had been working for Dhanendra and his wheelchair-bound wife Manju for 14 years said Gaurav was speaking to his wife over the phone when he noticed sparks coming from the AC in his room around 11 pm. Within moments, it caught fire.
Besides Dhanendra, Manju and Gaurav, two helpers — including Deepak who has worked with the family since 2018 — were present on the ground floor at the time.
The ground floor has two bedrooms. While Dhanendra and Manju stayed in one, Gauarav was staying in the other.
“I was in the kitchen having dinner. Gaurav sir screamed and asked me to help him get madam out,” Deepak said.
Deepak and Gaurav first helped Manju out of the house before calling out to Dhanendra, who was inside the bathroom in his bedroom.
“He replied, ‘main aa raha hun’. But when I and Gaurav sir returned, he was not there. His room was filled with smoke. We then saw him lying near the bathroom. We carried him out,” Deepak said.
In the meantime, Abhishek said Gaurav’s wife — who was in London — had called and asked him to rush to the Hauz Khas home. By the time Abhishek arrived from Chhatarpur, thick plumes of smoke were coming out of the house.
“Flames were about to come out from the windows of Gaurav sir’s room. We tried to contain it there. By then, a PCR van had taken Manju madam, Dhanendra sir and Gaurav sir to the hospital,” he said.
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Abhishek said no fire tender had arrived by then. “Some neighbours joined us in trying to control the fire. Deepak opened the water tank of the house while others started taking out water in buckets and trying to douse the blaze.”
According to a neighbour, a mosquito net fixed outside the window in Gaurav’s room initially did not allow water to enter the room. “A policeman removed the net…. and I tried to pour in water. I started pouring in piped water… The fire tenders arrived at least 20-25 minutes later,” the neighbour added.
Abhishek described Dhanendra as his mentor, someone he looked up to. “He would wake up at 5 am, exercise, and then sit to write articles or attend meetings,” he said.
Deepak said the family is yet to inform Manju about Dhanendra’s death. “He used to take care of her health – arrange her medicines, feed her. More than any doctor,” he said.
Police said initial findings suggest a faulty wire may have caused the spark in the AC that triggered the fire.
