The house of a cousin of economist Amartya Sen opposite the high-security Visva-Bharati campus was burgled on Tuesday night, three weeks after an elderly descendant of Rabindranath Tagore was robbed at knifepoint in Santiniketan.

Thieves broke into the house of 83-year-old Kajari Roy Choudhury, a cousin of Nobel laureate Sen, by melting the iron rods of the kitchen window.

None of the Roy Choudhurys were in the house at Guru Pally at the time of the robbery. Kajari lives in Salt Lake, Calcutta, with her son Aniruddha, who runs a recruitment agency. The family visits Santiniketan once a month or after two months.

The thieves have taken away Rs 55,000 in cash, an electric heater, a mixer-grinder, three voltage stabilisers, bathroom fittings and utensils.

“I was shocked when my caretaker Ramprasad informed me this morning about the burglary…. He told me the thieves broke open two almirahs. I need to check first before I can give more details,” Kajari said on Wednesday.

Caretaker Ramprasad Roy, who locks the home and leaves in the afternoon after daily chores, has lodged a complaint at Bolpur police station. No arrests had been made till the evening.

Birbhum police chief Kunal Aggarwal did not take calls or reply to a text message from this newspaper till late Wednesday evening.

Police inspect the home after the theft on Wednesday. Picture by Indrajit Roy

Police sources said Ramprasad had told cops that his wife, who cleans the house, spotted the broken window on Wednesday morning.

Aniruddha, who reached Santiniketan around 7.30pm, said: “I found that Rs 35,000 in one of the almirahs and Rs 20,000 kept under a mattress were missing…. The utensils the thieves took away were made of bell metal and steel.”

As the one-storey house of the Roy Choudhurys is opposite the Visva-Bharati campus, which is under police and private security surveillance, the burglary has raised concerns among Santiniketan residents.

Several residents said night patrolling was infrequent in the area.

On the morning of October 5, a youth had entered the Diganta Pally house of Haimanty Dattagupta, the great-granddaughter of Rabindranath Tagore’s elder brother Satyendranath, and taken away Rs 8,000 and two bangles at knifepoint. She had been locked in a bathroom for over one-and-a-half hours.

The police had arrested a drug addict and recovered her bangles. The cops had then promised more vigil in the area and regular interaction with residents.

“We are among the oldest families living in Santiniketan…. The family has been there since Tagore’s time. I grew up there with my cousins, including Amartya. I am really worried about the security in Santiniketan,” Kajari said over phone, voicing the concerns of most residents of the area.

Her husband Shankar Kumar was a group captain in the Indian Air Force.