The skeletal remains of a man and the decomposed body of his elder brother were found on the second floor of their three-storied house on Kshetra Mohan Ghosh Road in Nimta on the northern fringes of the city on Sunday night.
The deceased have been identified as Dhirendra Dey, 68, and his brother Birendra Dey, 64.
The bodies have been sent for post-mortem, police said.
Around 11pm on Sunday, members of a local club on East Belgharia Second Lane called the police and informed them that a body was lying on the second floor of a house in the neighbourhood.
“Dhirendra’s body lay on a bed and had started to rot, it had turned black. It seemed the man died some five-six days back,” said a senior officer of Nimta police station.
“We found the skeletal remains of another body in a room adjoining the one where Dhirendra’s body was found. Later it turned out to be that of his brother, Birendra,” he said.
The Deys were four brothers and a sister. Two of the brothers died a few years back, the police said.
The sister is married and lives almost five kilometres away from the house in Nimta, the police said.
Neither the sister nor any of the relatives would visit the house, said an officer. The police are trying to find more details about the two brothers who died a few years ago.
Dhirendra and Birendra used to live on the second floor of their house and stayed away from neighbours as much as possible, residents said.
Dhirendra worked for the West Bengal Power Development Corporation Limited and retired almost eight years back. Birendra, the brother, was jobless, some of the neighbours said.
“A few days back one of Deys’ neighbours told us that the two brothers were not seen for a few days and that we should try and find out if they were alright,” said Dipjoy Das, secretary of the club on East Belgharia Second Lane.
On Sunday, a group of seven club members entered the house.
“We saw a body lying on the bed in a room on the second floor,” Das said. “We ran down and called the police”.
The iron grill gate of the house leading to a flight of steps was open, the police said.
“The two brothers were bachelors. No one had seen them for almost 10 to 12 days. The electric connection to the house was snapped and they did not hire anyone for the domestic chores,” said a senior officer of the Barrackpore police commissionerate.
“It is difficult to say when the younger brother died but it’s evident that the older one did not want to cremate him.”