The Visva Bharati University in West Bengal on Friday asked Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen to immediately hand over parts of a plot he has been allegedly occupying in Birbhum district’s Santiniketan, PTI reported.

“You are in possession of 1.38 acre of land which is in excess of your legal entitlement of 1.25 acre,” the university administration said in a letter to Sen. “Kindly return the land to Visva-Bharati as early as possible since application of the laws of the land will cause embarrassment to you and also to Visva-Bharati which you endear so much.”

This is the university’s second letter to Sen regarding the land in the last three days. On Tuesday, the Visva Bharati University had issued notice to Sen asking him to return the land, saying it was not part of his family-owned estate.

In December 2020, the Visva Bharati, a public central university, had named Sen in a list of illegal plot holders within its premises. The Nobel laureate has a family house in Santiniketan that was built by Kshitimohan Sen, his grandfather and a Sanskrit scholar. The list includes Sen’sname of as his house, Pratichi, occupies around 138 decimals of land while the original lease was given on 125 decimals.

Sen had claimed that the land was leased out to his family for 100 years and some of it was also bought by his father from the market following all rules and regulations.

On Wednesday, the Nobel laureate had said that he does not understand Visva Bharati University’s motive behind asking him to return his property at the Santiniketan campus.

“I could not see any subtlety in their [university authorities’] thinking,” the economist had said. “I also do not understand the politics behind this attitude of Visva-Bharati University. This is my residence which was built on leased land from Visva-Bharati in the 1940s.”

In recent years, Sen has been vocal in his criticism of several policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government. On January 15, he had said that implementing the Citizenship Amendment Act could reduce the role of minorities in the country, while encouraging majoritarian forces.