The hatchbolt, on the main gate of the house, damaged by the robbers. Bishwarup Dutta

An 88-year-old man was tied up with a bedsheet at his Ranikuthi home and robbed of gold and cash by two men who threatened to stab him with a screwdriver and a pair of scissors.

Amal Chandra Basu woke up around 3.30am on Tuesday and found two strangers standing in his room. The room was dark but the light coming through the open windows was enough for Basu to see their faces.

“The moment they saw me awake, they started demanding Rs 1 lakh. ‘Ek lakh taka ta de (give us the Rs 1 lakh)’, they were telling me continuously, as if they knew there was Rs 1 lakh in the house. One of them used a bedsheet to tie me up and another used a screw driver and a pair of scissors to threaten to kill me,” Basu told Metro on Tuesday afternoon.

By the time Basu had woken up, the room had been ransacked. He was forced to open a cupboard, from where the robbers took away Rs 35,000 and a bag containing gold jewellery belonging to the mother of Basu’s daughter-in-law.

Basu, whose wife died earlier this year, lives in the Gandhi Colony house four days a week and with his son Siddhartha and his family, in a house in the same locality, on the remaining three days. He is usually alone when he stays in the house that has been robbed.

The elderly man, who was a railway official, is known in the neighbourhood for helping others. “Just a day ago, he (Basu) helped me with the documents related to a fixed deposit that matured recently. I am to get Rs 90,000. We were discussing the matter at his home and he told me that that I should add another Rs 10,000 and make a fixed deposit of Rs 1 lakh,” recounted an elderly neighbour.

Police said Basu and his family members suspect that some masons who were working outside the house had overheard the conversation and thought that there was Rs 1 lakh in the house.

“Otherwise, why would they ask for Rs 1 lakh? I tried to convince them that I did not have the money. They used a bedsheet to tie me up. When they were about gag me, I told them I had respiratory problems and that I could die. I also told them that I would withdraw pension and meet their demand if they came two days later. But the moment they found the gold ornaments, they looked satisfied,” Basu said.

The duo were apparently in a hurry to end the “operation”, he said.

Basu’s neighbours, who were alerted by his screams soon after the robbers left, alerted his son over the phone around 4.15am. “We accompanied the police to Baghajatin and Jadavpur railway stations to look for the suspects,” Siddhartha Basu said.

Two of the masons, hired by the family for some repairs, have been detained for questioning.

The police said the robbers had first tried to break the lock on the main gate but failed. They then climbed to the terrace of the single-storey building, broke the lock on the terrace door and entered the house.

The family found that the robbers had eaten biscuits kept in the kitchen and taken a chocolate packet Basu had bought for his grandson.