Sister Nivedita's 115-Year-Old House Ransacked, Antique Missing in Darjeeling

Kolkata: Sister Nivedita's 115-year-old house, popularly known as 'Roy Villa' in Darjeeling, was ransacked by miscreants and some of her personal belongings – worth crores of rupees in antique market – reportedly went missing on Thursday morning.

The house, which houses Ramakrishna Mission Nivedita Educational and Cultural Centre, is located at Lebong Cart Road and this is the place where Sister Nivedita breathed her last on 13 October 1911.

Sister Nivedita was a Scots-Irish social worker, author, teacher and a disciple of Swami Vivekananda. She spent her childhood and early days of her youth in Ireland. She met Swami Vivekananda in 1895 in London and traveled to Kolkata in 1898. She dedicated her life serving the poor and needy in Kolkata.

Speaking to News18, Swami Nityasatyananda, secretary, Ramkrishna Mission Nivedita Educational and Cultural Centre, said, "This is a very unfortunate incident. One of my disciples called me in the morning and told me that her house was ransacked by some miscreants."

When asked to elaborate, she said, "Sister Nivedita's puja room, personal room, hall of Sister Nivedita where she breathed her last, was ransacked. Some of the antiques and rare pictures in frames were thrown on the floor and some missing. We have lodged a complaint with the local police."

A team of West Bengal Police rushed to the spot and trying to get some clues from the nearby CCTV cameras.

Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader Amar Rai condemned the incident and demanded stern action against those who are responsible for the incident.

The house was under the control of Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) but it was later handed over to Ramkrishna Mission after being requested by the state government. In 1903, Sister Nivedita first visited to Darjeeling with botanist Jagdish Chandra Bose and his wife Abala Basu.

Rantideb Sengupta, general secretary of Sister Nivedita Mission Trust condemned the incident and demanded a high level inquiry in to the matter. "This is an unfortunate incident and we would like to request the probe agencies to arrest the culprits at the earliest," he said.