Four armed men on Saturday broke into the Chutia home of a retired employee of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, scared him and his wife, and took off with Rs 3 lakhs in cash, ornaments worth Rs 7 lakh, a laptop and a camera.

The robbery took place before dawn, around 4am, at Nihar, the double-storey home of Deepak Ghosh in Anantpur under Chutia thana.

Ghosh and his wife were sleeping in their bedroom on the ground floor while son Kaushik was sleeping in his room adjacent to his parents, when the quartet entered with two guns and two knives.

Speaking to this reporter, a relative of Ghosh who requested she not be named, said the armed men entered the elderly couple’s bedroom via the kitchen at the back of the house.

“They cut the window grille of the kitchen with a gas cutter. Entering the bedroom, they threatened the elderly couple to stay quiet or face dire consequences. The men took the keys from the couple to open the steel almirah and cleaned out cash and ornaments, which were kept at home in view of Kaushik’s upcoming wedding in May. They also took the laptop and camera,” she said.

The window grille of the kitchen which was cut with a gas cutter. Picture by Manob Chowdhary

She added the robbers did not make noise or disturb the couple’s son Kaushik in the 30 minutes or so they remained in the house. “After they fled, the Ghosh couple woke up their son who then called me and I called the police.” City SP Sujata Veenapani said probe had started. “We have taken help of the forensics team. So far, no clue has been found,” the city SP said.

City DSP Pran Ranjan Kumar said the armed men had done their homework well, suggesting the hand of someone closed to Ghosh. “The house they chose, the way they entered and the way they targeted the elderly couple, all point to the robbers having a proper idea of the wealth in the house, its layout and the disposition of the victims,” Kumar said.

DSP Kumar added, “There is no CCTV camera in the house and in the locality.”

An FIR has been filed with Chutia police. Chutia OC Arun Kumar, said: “Primary probe suggests the intention of the gang was theft but it became robbery as the couple woke up. We will nab the culprits soon.” A police officer, who visited the spot, said, “The Ghosh family had kept the cash at home for their son’s wedding shopping. He added that two knives were recovered.

Break-in

Jamshedpur: Unidentified burglars broke into the house of Ashok Singh at Sheshnagar in Govindpur on Friday night and decamped with ornaments worth Rs 1 lakh and Rs 10,000 in cash.