A Congress rally at Santiniketan. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

Santiniketan, March 27: A preliminary probe by Visva-Bharati has indicated lapses on the part of security and museum staff, leading to the burglary.

The probe, conducted by the security officer of the museum and a deputy registrar of the university, has prompted the authorities to launch a bigger investigation.

“We will soon begin another thorough and independent departmental inquiry. We are firm in our resolve to unveil the truth. But we are unable to start the probe immediately due to some technical problems,” vice-chancellor Sujit Kumar Basu said today.

The preliminary probe focused on the following areas:

Whether the number of securitymen on duty at the museum before and after shutting down on Tuesday was adequate

Whether the number of employees absent on that day was high

Whether any employees had removed any of the objects

Whether there was any lapse on the part of the employees when they were shutting down for the night

All the objects at the Rabindranath Tagore Memorial Museum are insured for a sum of over Rs 3 crore, university registrar Sunil Sarkar said. The university will claim the insurance on the lost 52 items and the medal on Monday, he said.

Sources said the university will be in a position to start the investigation after the Uttarayan complex — which has been taken over by the CID team — is handed back to the authorities. Since the CID has sealed the museum, entry to the Uttarayan complex has been restricted.

“The first thing we want to establish is whether an individual or a group of individuals from the university is involved in the incident,” said a senior official.