The room where Yashvir Sood’s body was found. Amit Mehra
The decomposing body of a scientist was found at his home, inside the Pusa Institute campus Thursday. Police said the body of 64-year-old Yashvir Sood, a former principal scientist with the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, was found on a folding cot. Police said his 67-year-old sister and 59-year-old brother were at home, “living with the body”.
Police said both are believed to be mentally unstable. “His body was completely decomposed and his sister and brother were living with it. He had been dead for at least a week. Our team had to break open the door as his sister was not opening it. Both were malnourished and not mentally well. They have been admitted to the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences,” DCP (west) Vijay Kumar said.
A neighbour, Ishwar Singh, said he noticed a foul smell emanating from the house on Wednesday evening but thought it was a dead animal. “On Thursday morning, I noticed flies outside the window. I informed officials from the institute and police were called,” said Singh. Police said the trio were staying in a Delhi Electricity Supply Undertaking quarters for over a year, after they were asked to vacate the Type-E government accommodation on campus, where they had lived all their lives. Their father, too, was a scientist, police said.
Police said Sood’s body is still in the hospital as they are waiting for a family member to come and the autopsy to be conducted. “Sood had not withdrawn even a single penny of his pension or gratuity,” said a senior police officer. Neighbours said the three never interacted with anyone. The new accommodation, given on “humanitarian grounds” as per IARI officials, was 200 metres from the old one. Since the new house was very small, the siblings’ furniture and Sood’s Bajaj scooter stayed wrapped in tarpaulin outside the house. Neighbours said Sood had bought a car but “drove it only for two or three days”.
Officials at IARI said Sood was “reluctant” to move out of his old house. “We requested him several times as eight months — the norm for a retired employee to vacate the house — had elapsed,” said an official. Many of his colleagues remembered him as a proficient badminton player who later became a recluse.
