'IAS officer kept to himself, rarely spoke to neighbours'

Didn't see anyone entering Meena's house, say locals

Neighbours of 37-year-old IAS officer Shyam Vinod Meena, whose body was found in his house on Saturday, told Deccan Herald that he was a private person and interacted with few people at the colony.  

Among the first things that Meena did on moving into his R K Puram-based government quarter was to build a high glass-fibre compound around the lawn, said a resident.

Police said initial investigation has revealed that Meena died due to lack of care when he was sick. He was alone at home when he died. Though prima facie, the cause seems to be dehydration and dysentery, the post-mortem report is awaited in the case.

His wife and daughter were away at the former’s parents’ house Alwar in Rajasthan, according to police. 

“He rarely interacted with neighbours. We didn’t even know that his wife and daughter were not present at the time of the incident. Had they informed us about it or about his illness, we might have been in a position to help him,’’ said a neighbour, requesting anonymity.

 The three-bedroom house in RK Puram’s sector-9 N-block was allotted to Meena a year back. The colony houses Class-1 central government officers.

“Only once he came to our house, when his four-year-old daughter asked him to pluck a flower from our garden. He had not even hired a maid. I am told that, in his wife’s absence, he himself used to wash his clothes,’’ the neighbour added.Clothes were seen hanging on the clothesline on Sunday morning.
  Denying that they heard or saw anyone coming or going in the house prior to the discovery of the body, neighbours said that they only came to know about the incident when a police team visited the house.

A local said, Meena’s house has two entry points. The family members used to take the one which opens directly on to the street, avoiding any interaction with neighbours who used the lobby facing the other door to the house.

 A 2008 batch IAS officer of the Jammu and Kashmir cadre, Meena had spent his first five years in the hill state. His first posting was in Reasi district, where he was posted as a sub-divisional magistrate.

 Meena also served in Doda and Ramban, before he was sent to Delhi in 2010. Meena was an engineering graduate from the prestigious Delhi College of Engineering and hailed from Alwar area of Rajasthan.