3 of a family die of asphyxiation, heater kept switched on

In second such incident in a fortnight, a family of three, including a six-year-old child, was found dead in their south Delhi house apparently due to asphyxiation caused by a room heater they had left on to keep the room warm.
The incident came to light here this morning when police got a phone call at around 8:20 AM that there was no response from inside a two-room house in south Delhi's Kotla Mubarakpur where a 35-year-old software engineer lived with his wife and son.
"When a police team reached the house and broke open the door, the trio was found lying on the bed inside quilt in an unconscious state. The heater was found switched on and all the doors and windows of the house were found shut. They were rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors pronounced them dead on arrival," said a senior police official.

The deceased have been identified as Satish Verma, his wife Shashi Verma (28) and son Archit.
Police suspect that the family died due to inhaling of excessive carbon monoxide produced by the heater they had left switched on before sleeping last night.
"Although the exact cause of their death will be known after autopsy, it seems that they died due to asphyxiation. We are investigating the case," said a senior police official.

Satish was a software engineer with a private firm in Noida. The boy was a class one student. The family hailed from Samastipur in Bihar and had been living in the area for the last three years.

Shashi's mother, who lived nearby, told police that Satish had informed that last night that her daughter was ill. When they reached their house in the morning to check, they got no response from inside and the phone calls also went unanswered following which they informed police.
On December 21, three men who worked at the house of a businessman died of asphyxiation after they had lit a coal fire (angithi) to keep themselves warm during the night at the residence of their employer in south Delhi's Hauz Khas area.