News about the death of Dr Yashvir Sood came out just like the death of his mother,” said a senior official of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) at Pusa on Thursday afternoon.
64-year-old Dr Yashvir Sood, retired Principal Scientist with the Department of Nuclear Sciences was found dead due to natural causes on a broken cot in the flat within the premises of the IARI on Thursday morning. Police said that they faced resistance from Kamla, the sister of Dr Sood, after she blocked the entrance of the room.
Neighbours and colleagues of Dr Sood shared that since the demise of Dr Ved Prakash Sood — father of Dr Yashvir Sood — in 1974, the family slowly started falling apart. While Harish, the younger brother of the deceased scientist slowly started losing his mental health, their sister Kamla too went into depression due to personal problems.
The final blow came for the Sood siblings when their mother passed away in 2010.
“While Harish and Kamla were of unsound mind, Dr Yashvir had turned into an alcoholic. In 2010, when their mother passed away due to natural illness, it was only five days later that their neigbours, unable to bear the foul stench, had called the police.
“ Then too, police broke open the door and found the body. On enquiry, the policemen had found that the trio had not realised that their mother had expired and had been living with the body, sleeping and eating next to it. E-54 (the flat where they were living earlier) appeared a scene straight out of a horror movie. With faeces lying around, their house looked like a complete wreck, a hell,” said the officer, who had assisted in moving the Sood siblings out of E-54.
“For the last one year, the siblings were living in the quarter. Dr Yashvir was so intelligent yet due to his ill-health, he was not able to go to the bank,” added the officer, requesting not to be named.
“The last time I saw Dr Yashvir was last month, when he was going for a shave. While his sister kept to herself and was engrossed in house work, their brother Harish used to roam around the premises of the institute. On several occasions, he was spotted without pants. Following which Dr Yashvir had to be called,” said a guard of the canteen which Dr Yashvir used to frequent.
Sitting idle in front of their former flat is a white Swift SX4. “Dr Yashvir had brought the car some 10-years-ago. But he did not drive much. At times when his brother used to go through temper issues, he used to throw stones at the car. This left the car in a bad state,” the guard said.
Meanwhile, police said that they have kept the body of Dr Sood at the mortuary. “The post-mortem has not been conducted. We are waiting for some distant family members to come. Till 72 hours, we will wait. We have got to know that they have some relatives in london.”