The house in Tollygunge, in which the Sahas have lived for years, seems to have been jinxed. For, long before the serial deaths on Saturday, disaster had already struck the family, and the Sahas had been living with its memories all this time.

Over a decade ago, this building had witnessed another macabre death. Nearly 12 years earlier, Ardhendu Bikash Saha, brother of Nabendu Bikash Saha, was found hanging from the ceiling of his room in the same house. And this happened only about 10 days after his marriage.

Ardhendu was the only one in the family to become a professional, choosing to stay out of the family bakery business. An engineer by training, Ardhendu had married Kalyani, who lived only a few houses away from theirs, a neighbour recalled on Sunday.

“It was impossible to believe that a man who was just married could kill himself. Everyone wondered what could have led the young man to take his own life that way. But this has always remained a mystery. And the entire family was shell-shocked,” a neighbour said.

Ardhendu’s parents never got over it. But Sushamabala Saha, his mother, was “extremely kind”, and she asked Kalyani to get married again if she desired. After all, she was young and would have nothing to look forward to if she were to live in that house, where all her dreams had been shattered.

But the young widow refused to remarry. Instead of cursing the house and leaving it for good, Kalyani continued to live in the Saha house.

Unfortunately, what she witnessed on Sunday seemed to be a reprisal of the terrible misfortune that had befallen her years ago.

Their two other brothers, Hemendru and Sukhendu, live in Beleghata, while three siblings, Dibyendu, Purnendu and Amalendu live in the same house in Tollygunge.

“Do you think anyone can live in peace in this house anymore? Deaths cannot get any more grisly than this. It has already turned into a haunted house…” a neighbour observed on Sunday morning.

“Years of grief have cast a pall over the house. Once a tragedy occurs in a family nobody can ever forget it. The ever-smiling children, Simanta and Bedanta, must have brought great happiness to the family… Only, it was not to last for long,” said an elderly neighbour.

If the neighbours were shocked, the Saha family’s relatives were left even more dazed by the sudden death of their kin. “We are all appalled at the nature of the deaths. There is an evil eye on this house. Even if they were neck-deep in debt — and I believe they were — they could have sold this house. Why did they all have to die like this despite owning such a big house? This is a great misfortune,” said one of the Saha relatives.