A 73-year-old woman was allegedly assaulted and robbed inside her north Kolkata home in Khelatbabu Lane in Tallah on Thursday night while her daughter and son-in-law were away celebrating Diwali.
The son-in-law found Padma Mandal in a pool of blood when he returned home around 8am on Friday.
The family has complained that at least one cupboard has been broken and gold jewellery stolen from the house.
Police said Mandal had been hit with a blunt object on her head and ears.
“A sharp object — possibly a screw driver — was used to hit her left eye. She has been admitted to hospital with serious injuries,” a senior officer said.
The police have come to suspect after a preliminary inquiry that only one person was involved in the crime. The robber, they suspect, scaled the boundary wall of an adjoining building to enter the three-storey building, where Mandal lives on the ground floor, from the rear.
A policeman outside the ground floor room where she lives. Pradip Sanyal
“He broke the lock on the grille gate on the ground floor to gain access to Mandal’s apartment,” the officer said.
The top two floors of the building belong to other owners.
Mandal’s daughter Nivedita, son-in-law Sunil Shaw and grandson Aryan had gone to Nivedita’s in-laws’ house in Ultadanga to celebrate Diwali.
The family returned home to Tallah in the evening to light up lamps and again left for Ultadanga at night, locking the grille gate from outside.
Sunil returned alone on Friday morning and found the lock on the grille gate and the main door of the house broken.
He found Mandal lying in her room amid blood and reported the matter to the police.
Officers of Tallah police station have started an investigation.
An investigator said there are five CCTV cameras on the periphery of the building, covering the road in front.
The police said the robber avoided being captured by the cameras and sneaked into the building from the rear.
“He scaled the boundary wall of an adjoining building to enter this building. There was a heap of rubbish and a few bamboo sticks that possibly helped him scale the wall,” said an officer.
The investigators were not yet sure whether the person knew about the occupants of the house and the fact that the old woman was alone at home on Diwali night.
No one was arrested till Friday evening.
The incident happened two days after a 91-year-old woman was killed inside her apartment on the ninth floor of an 11-storey building on Shakespeare Sarani in southcentral Kolkata, which has multiple guards on the premises.