Starvation Has Claimed One More Life in Delhi

A reclusive man, whose decomposed body was found Friday from his south Delhi home, had died of starvation, revealed the post-mortem examination Saturday. "His (Maninder Singh Bhander) autopsy reports show that he had eaten very less in the past few days and was starving. He had died a couple of days back," said a senior police official.

Bhander's body was recovered Friday when police barged into his home in the upscale Greater Kailash-II, after his neighbours complained of a foul smell emanating from the house.

After receiving no response despite knocking on the door for a few minutes, police decided to break the door open and found his body on the floor, near the main entrance, covered with insects.

According to police, Bhander, 44, was unmarried and staying alone for the past few years, ever since his mother, a school principal, died. He had no regular income. He is survived by a sister, who is an actor by profession. "His neighbours informed us that he was last seen two weeks ago and had completely isolated himself from others."

Bhander's neighbour O.P. Dewan said: "We never saw him interacting with others. He was a quiet man and preferred to live in his house all alone. We never saw any house-help working in there. Many believed that he was apparently not mentally stable."

Bhander's death was the second such case in two months.

In August police along with neighbours had rescued two starving sisters - Dolly, 43, and Poonam, 41, living with the dead body of their 30-year-old younger sibling Neeru, who had died of starvation, from their Kalkaji house. The three Bali sisters, battling unemployment and poverty, had gone foodless for two weeks. Their travails might have gone on but for a neighbour's call to police.

The neighbours along with police had rushed the surviving sisters to a private nursing home. After two months of counselling and medical treatment the surviving sisters are limping back to normal life.

Sameer Parekh, a physiatrist, said: "Interdependence among people in society is reducing drastically. People are confining more and more to themselves, which sometimes leads to mental trauma. It is the prime duty of the community to identify such persons and provide them help before the situation slips out of hand."

Source-IANS
LIN/V