Mystery deaths of India’s BrahMos scientists ignite alarming questions

NEW DELHI: Two scientists, linked to India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation, have died under strikingly similar circumstances in the past five weeks, prompting concern in defence circles across the region.

Akashdeep Gupta, a 30-year-old system engineer working on the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile project, collapsed at his Lucknow residence on the night of October 21 after complaining of uneasiness following dinner. He was declared dead on arrival at a local hospital. Post-mortem examination confirmed cardiac arrest caused by a heart blockage.

Just over a month later, Aditya Verma, a 28-year-old Joint Director posted at DRDO’s Defence Food Research Laboratory in Mysuru, was found unconscious in the bathroom of his Alwar home on the morning of November 27. He had married only two days earlier. Doctors pronounced him dead despite immediate medical attention.

Both scientists were relatively young, recently married, and collapsed suddenly at home shortly after feeling unwell. While Gupta’s death has been officially attributed to natural cardiac failure, the exact cause of Verma’s death awaits a forensic viscera report. Monitoring Desk