The balcony through which the robbers entered the house; (above) the ransacked almirah. Pictures by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Three masked men broke into the first floor of a Kankurgachhi house through the balcony early on Tuesday and robbed gold ornaments weighing 15 tollahs and cash after tying up the woman who lives there.

The men tied up 40-year-old Minati Dutta by holding a chopper against her throat before proceeding to rob her valuables as their partner stood guard on the footpath below.

Within hours, the detective department rounded up two of the four robbers and recovered 7 tollahs of gold ornaments and the cellphone they had picked up while fleeing. Another robber was arrested at Ultadanga in the evening. Some more robbed gold was found on him.

Minati has been living alone on the first floor of her mother’s house at P44 CIT Road, Scheme VII, since separating from her husband several years ago. Her ailing mother stays on the floor above. Minati’s sisters Suniti Paine and Pranati Chandra often spend the night at their mother’s.

Around 3am on Tuesday, Minati woke up to find three masked men in her bedroom. The men had entered by breaking the lock on the grille window of the first-floor balcony, about 15ft above the road.

“They tied me to a chair and demanded the keys to the locker in the almirah. One of men held a chopper to my throat as the other two ransacked the place. I was petrified,” Minati told Metro.

Around 3.30am, before the robbers were done, her younger sister Suniti, who was staying over on the second floor, woke up.

“I had got out of bed to drink water and heard men speaking in Bengali downstairs. I immediately shouted for help from the second-floor balcony,” said Suniti.

Hearing her cries, the men ran out to the balcony and clambered down the ladder to the footpath, where another man was waiting.

“The robbers knew their way around well. The three who entered the flat were young, in their late-20s or early-30s,” said Minati.

The two burglars were caught by 1.30pm. Seven tollahs of gold, the cellphone and the chopper were found on them.

“From the way the robbery was planned and executed, we figured out that it was the work of professional criminals,” said deputy commissioner (detective department) Jawed Shamim.

“The officer-in-charge and the additional officer-in-charge of Maniktala police station looked through files of robbers active in the area and zeroed in on Kochi Pandit. The 28-year-old was picked up from Sealdah. Kochi’s accomplice Sushanta Dutta, 32, was held on Muraripukur Road,” added Shamim.

Bidhan Das, 28, was held in the evening in connection with the robbery.

Pandit, who has 10 robbery cases pending against him, was arrested a few months ago and released on bail.

Kochi’s elder brother Chandu, 32, was arrested two months ago and convicted in a robbery case.