Jewellery of the British era worth over `15 lakh was stolen under mysterious circumstances from Indian cricket legend late Pankaj Roy’s residence in front of Kumartuli Park in Shyambazar.
On Sunday afternoon, Roy’s widow Bijoya, 65, found the sinduk (iron vault) open, while a portion of the gold ornaments, including a necklace missing from it.
The sinduk is located in her husband’s room at the second floor of the palatial building at Abhoy Mitra Lane.
The room also houses several photographs of the famous batsman, he added.
With four servants round the clock, Ms Roy stays at an adjoining room on the same floor.
“The sinduk has a combination lock. The lock’s numbers are only known to me and my two sons Pranab and Pradip,” she said.
Ms Roy narrated the incident over phone to Pradip who stays at another room in the building. Pranab stays in Salt Lake.
Her relatives stay in other floors with their servants at the ancestral property with around 30 rooms. Lodging a complaint with the Shyampukur police station, she told the cops of opening the sinduk two-and-half months ago, but locked it well then.
However after the theft, the combination lock was intact, disclosed another officer.
No sign of attempt of any break-in was found on the sinduk or the door of the room, which remains locked mostly, he added. Later, the officers of the anti-burglary section of the Kolkata police’s detective department (DD) inspected the vault and the house.
Ms Roy informed that she had inherited the valuables from her mother in-law, the police said.
Suspecting insiders’ hand the DD questioned all the servants. The DD also spoke to Pranab and Pradip.
A probe is underway, said joint commissioner of police (Crime) Pallab Kanti Ghosh.