Four months after she left her hospital bed, Suchitra Sen has been wheeled back into the intensive cardiac care unit.

Under cover of darkness late on Monday, the Greta Garbo of Bengali cinema was admitted to Belle Vue Clinic.

From behind a stifling security cordon and a veil of secrecy, word trickled out that the 77-year-old star, who has shunned the public eye for the past 30 years, was suffering from “multiple problems”.

All that the medical bulletin issued on Wednesday afternoon stated was: “Mrs Suchitra Sen has been admitted with breathlessness due to chest infection. Her condition remains stable.”

Pradip Tondon, the CEO of Belle Vue, later added: “She will be kept under observation for 72 hours.”

Sources at the clinic said she was also suffering from urinary tract infection (UTI) and fever — that had forced her earlier admission on October 11, 2007 — along with a blood clot in a knee joint.

“She is fine. Ma (Moon Moon) has left Mumbai to be by her side. I will come down a few days later,” elder granddaughter Raima told Metro from Mumbai on Wednesday evening.

Moon Moon arrived at Belle Vue around 10.45pm. She was scheduled to stay with her mother through the night.

A medical board, comprising critical care expert Subrata Maitra and physicians Samarjit Naskar and Anirban Neogi, was formed to monitor the treatment of the star patient in Cabin 702 of the ICCU.

Till late on Wednesday, several diagnostic tests were being carried out, even as Sen was started on antibiotics. “She was on a liquid diet throughout the day,” revealed a source.

The clinic was cordoned off by cops all day long as word of Sen’s hospitalisation spread. “She is paranoid about being seen in public or being photographed. During the 18 days that she was here last October, she had made it clear that if there was any violation of her privacy, she would hold it against the hospital,” said a source in Belle Vue.

“And despite being quite weak and unwell this time, she reiterated her request for extreme secrecy,” added the source.

So, if the main gate was cordoned off by police and private guards, there was a security barrier near her ICCU cabin, too.

“Only the doctors and nurses directly involved with her treatment are being allowed near her cabin,” said a junior doctor denied a glimpse of “the enigma”.

The reaction from the film fraternity on Wednesday was mixed. Two of her contemporaries in Tollywood approached on Wednesday refused to comment or even convey a “get-well-soon” message. Only arch-rival Supriya Devi said: “I am very sorry to hear that Ramadi has been taken ill again... I love her a lot.”

But when Dev Anand — Sen’s hero in Bambai ka Babu and Sarhad — was told about her illness, he was quick to wish her a “speedy recovery”.

Her Devdas co-star Dilip Kumar sent an SMS to Metro wishing her well and recounting the “happy experience to have been associated with her (as Paro) in one of my favourite films, Devdas”.