Economist Amartya Sen's name has come up in a list of illegal plot holders which have been mentioned in a letter sent by the Vishwa Bharati University to the West Bengal state government, Times of India has reported.

The letter lists out unauthorised occupants of the university land while claiming that dozens of its plots "have been recorded wrongly in favour of private parties".

It adds that as a result of the wrong recording of ownership in government's record-of-right (RoR), the university's land has been illegally transferred resulting in private players setting up restaurants, schools and businesses on land which was procured by Rabindranath Tagore.

On Amartya Sen, the letter states that he is illegally occupying 13 decimals of land, which is over and above the 125 decimals land legally leased to his late father.

In 2006, Sen had written to the then vice-chancellor to transfer the land in his name, which was approved but the excess land was not returned to the university.

"Sen is well aware that he is occupying a good quantum of university’s land unauthorisedly", an estate official has been quoted as saying, who adds that the Sen family benefited by selling plots near the campus.