A new special investigation team (SIT) began their examination of the Salt Lake Stadium debacle that took place on Saturday by conducting a visit to the location on Wednesday morning.

The four-member SIT, led by director of security Peeyush Pandey, and comprising additional director-general of police (law and order) Jawed Shamim, additional director-general of police (south Bengal) Supratim Sarkar and Barrackpore police commissioner Murlidhar, has taken over the cases related to the incidents at the stadium during Lionel Messi’s visit.

The first case lodged with Bidhannagar (South) police station was related to the alleged negligence that led to the chaos inside the stadium; the second was for the vandalism that followed.

Sources said the team would examine the causes that led to the fiasco on December 13. It will also see whether there was any criminal or administrative negligence.

The four-member team entered the stadium around 9.45am and left at 10.05am. The team did an overall inspection of the ground and then visited the office of the Bidhannagar police commissioner.

Later in the day, four more members of the rank of deputy superintendent of police and inspectors were inducted into the SIT. Sources said more officers would be added to the team.

A forensic team visited the stadium separately and collected samples of broken chairs, water bottles, soft drink bottles, broken gates and glass pieces strewn all over the ground. The officials took photographs and recorded videos of the spot.

Sources in the state home department said the SIT will take over from the existing probe into both cases.

“They (the SIT members) will look into the negligence part, the intent behind it.... if there was criminal negligence or administrative negligence,” a senior bureaucrat said at the state secretariat Nabanna.

Bidhannagar police have so far arrested the main organiser, Satadru Dutta, in one case and six persons who came as spectators for the vandalism.

Based on the preliminary findings of an enquiry committee led by a retired judge, state DGP Rajeev Kumar, Bidhannagar police commissioner Mukesh, and principal secretary of the youth affairs and sports department Rajesh Kumar Sinha were showcaused, and deputy commissioner (Bidhannagar) Aneesh Sarkar was placed under suspension and is being subjected to departmental proceedings.

The investigators found that the organisers had cancelled their contract with a big event management company three weeks before the event and had engaged a relatively smaller company that had the experience of handling only entertainment events and had no history of handling an event of this stature. On the contrary, Dutta had hired big-ticket event management companies for Mumbai, Hyderabad and Delhi.

Sources said that after the contract for event management with the first company was cancelled in Calcutta and the anchor who was scheduled to emcee was pulled off, Dutta took up the mike and made announcements himself.

The smuggling of water bottles into the stadium and their sale by the organisers is also part of the SIT probe, sources said.

“There was a lack of monitoring when the organiser was violating the rules,” said a source in the state home department.

Police sources said the team will question members of Dutta’s team and police officers who were on duty on the ground on December 13.