A 65-year-old man was found dead with his throat slit at his Broad Street home, where he lived with his daughter, late on Wednesday.

The one-storey building with a tiled roof, and trees on the premises, is surrounded by highrises and can be accessed from a cul-de-sac off Broad Street.

Biswajit Basu, a retired trader, was sitting on a chair when police entered the house around Wednesday midnight.

The main door was bolted from inside but it opened after a strong push.

Basu's younger daughter Bijaeeta, who lives in the house and works at a clock manufacturing company in Gariahat, returned home around 11.30pm on Wednesday night and found the main door bolted from inside as usual.

She told the police that she had called her father but the phone was switched off. She then called up her elder sister, who is married and lives at Batanagar. 'According to Bijaeeta's statement, her elder sister Jayeeta told her to alert the police. She called the police and officers of Karaya police station went to the spot,' said an officer at Lalbazar.

The police found the main door bolted from inside. The old wooden door, however, yielded to a hard push. Basu was found sitting on his chair, bleeding profusely from his throat. A blood-soaked vegetable knife was found in the room.

The elder daughter arrived soon after with her husband.

'The family members knew that the wooden door would give way if someone pushed it hard. It's surprising that the victim's younger daughter did not try to open the door when she found her father's phone switched off,' an officer at Lalbazar said.

'She called up her elder sister and then the police but did not alert her neighbours, which is unusual, too.

According to the family, the only thing that was missing from the house was the victim's mobile phone.

Bijaeeta said in her statement to the police that she later called the number again and the call was answered by a man who said he had got the phone in Park Circus. Officers said they were yet to recover the phone.

Basu's elder sister lives next door but the two families apparently are not in touch with each other.

'The Basus mostly keep to themselves. I last saw Biswajit Basu on Tuesday, when he was hiring a man to pluck jackfruits from a tree in his compound,' said a woman who lives behind Basu's house.

Next to the Basus' home is a small club where youths from the neighbourhood often gather.

'Kaku would not talk to anyone. He was a passionate Mohun Bagan supporter,' said one of the youths in the club.

Apparently, no one heard anything that could have made them suspicious.

An officer said they were trying to find out whether the family was in touch with any promoter to develop the two-and-a-half-cottah property.

Neighbours said a five-storey building had come up on a plot behind the Basu's house a couple of years ago.