Bela Dutta Gupta, the 86-year-old academic and former chairperson of the state women?s rights commission, was seriously injured after being hit on her forehead with a cast iron gas burner by a man who had sneaked into her house, ostensibly with burglary on his mind.

Dutta Gupta was attacked early on Monday morning at her Regent Estate residence in the Jadavpur police station area when she opened the kitchen door. Even before she could scream, he picked up the gas burner and hit her on her forehead.

As she fell down, the man took away the gold bangles she was wearing and left. But before leaving, the man retraced his steps and fell at Dutta Gupta?s feet. He broke down and said he had resorted to crime to meet the medical expenses of his ailing son.

Dutta Gupta lives alone and her attendant found her slumped on the floor when she turned up for work around 7.30 in the morning. The news of the attack began to spread and subsequently it was her nephew, Manik Sengupta, who arrived with a doctor. After examining the wound, the doctor dressed it up. It needed four stitches. Family members said her gold bangles weighed about half bhari.

According to preliminary investigations by Jadavpur police, based on the complaint lodged by one her relatives, the thief was a local hand who was aware of the fact that Dutta Gupta lived all by herself and would keep the doors of her house open till late at night.

?The man had sneaked into the house the night before and was possibly waiting inside the kitchen when the lady, unknowingly, locked the door from outside before going to bed. The next morning when she opened the kitchen door, the man hit her blindly on her head,? said an investigating officer of Jadavpur police station.