[MSN] CBI team in Santiniketan to quiz racketeers. The police have not ruled out the involvement of more Visva-Bharati officials in the racket.

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

CBI team in Santiniketan to quiz racketeers 
 
The police have not ruled out the involvement of more Visva-Bharati
officials in the racket 
 
Express News Service 
 
Kolkata, October 19: A CBI team today arrived at Santiniketan to interrogate
those arrested in connection with the fake antique racket. The team, led by
DSP P Bose, started its investigation to ascertain whether the members of
the racket had any link with the Nobel medallion and memorabilia theft. 

A raid was conducted at a village in Burdwan district in connection with the
antique theft that was unearthed on Tuesday, police said today. 

 
 
However, the raid last night at a house in Pichkurir Dhal did not yield much
as the owner had already fled, sub-divisional police officer Debashish Dhar
said. He was suspected to be a member of the racket, Dhar said. 

This came to light during the interrogation of the six persons arrested
since Tuesday. The arrests were made after the police busted an antique
theft racket with the recovery of rare artefacts and antiques, oil-paintings
and moulded figurines from a studio-cum-art gallery in Bolpur in Birbhum
district on Tuesday. 

Those arrested included a studio owner Rohitaswa Ghosh and Sumanta Pal, an
official of Visva-Bharati university's department of music. 

Pal was interrogated till late last night by the CBI officials. A senior
officer at Bolpur police station said they got some clues but would not
divulge them. 

The involvement of more Visva-Bharati officials in the racket was not ruled
out by the police. 

The CBI team which has arrived here will conduct a probe to examine possible
links between the racket and the theft in 2004 of Rabindranath Tagore's
Nobel medallion from Rabindra Bhavan museum at Visva-Bharati. 

The police also recovered some valuable paintings from the Kolkata residence
of the studio owner during a night-long raid on Wednesday.

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