Calcutta: Author Ramapada Chowdhury passed away on Sunday evening at a private hospital in Calcutta. He was 96.

Chowdhury, survived by wife and two daughters, was admitted to Belle Vue Clinic on July 20 with respiratory distress. He suffered multi-organ failure and died at 6.35pm on Sunday following a cardiac arrest, an official of the hospital said.

Chowdhury had received several awards, including Ananda Purashkar and the Sahitya Akademi Award. Some of his famous works are Dip-er Naam Tiya Rang, Kharij, Bon Palashir Padabali and Ekhoni. Some of his works were made into films.

Chowdhury was born in 1922 in Kharagpur. In Calcutta, he stayed at an apartment on Prince Anwar Shah Road.

Chowdhury's elder daughter Mahua Samanta said he had last written Harano Khata, a memoir, one-and-a-half years back.

"He had not been keeping well for the past two-and-a-half months," Samanta said.

"Ramapada Chowdhury's novels expose the hypocrisy and duplicities of the middle class. His short narratives such as Kharij will be read and remembered by generations," said academic Pabitra Sarkar.