A protest march in Santiniketan on Sunday. Picture by Amit Dutta

Calcutta, March 28: Just how important is Baranagar antique dealer Chandan Das to the Nobel-heist probe?

Here’s a sample of the “leads” he gave to investigators during overnight interrogation at Canning police station: “Pursue a Tata Sumo, number xxxx (police would not reveal the number for the sake of investigation). You may be able to get something of value to your probe.”

Then there are the four paintings, “signed” Tagore, that looked like two when recovered from his modest home. After a little tinkering, the two frames — apparently holding one picture each — yielded four paintings. Although Das, a nondescript man in his mid-thirties, insisted they were fakes allowed to get a coating of dust to “look original”, the experts asked to verify their authenticity were not sure.

Investigations indicate that Das and four others arrested from Canning are big fish in the city and the state’s grey market of antiques and objects of art. Das was picked up from his Baruipara Lane residence in Baranagar on Saturday. Crystalware and a large brass bell were also recovered from his house.

The leads he gave took the CID to four thieves in Canning who, a few days ago, had stolen a huge chandelier (said to be the second-largest in the country) from Murshidabad’s Kandi and sold it to an antique dealer at Sinthi More in Calcutta for Rs 2.8 lakh. The dealer, in turn, made Rs 25 lakh by selling it to buyers from Mumbai.

“All this show that the level at which Das and these four persons operate is not exactly bottom-of-the-pond,” a senior CID official said today.

Along with this, the sudden improvement in Das’s lifestyle after March 23 — the Santiniketan heist occurred some time between March 23 afternoon and March 25 morning — can also explain the CID’s interest in him.

“It is too early to tell how closely he (Das) is connected with the Nobel theft,” an official said. “But there is strong circumstantial evidence that he came into big money around the time the heist occurred at the Rabindranath Memorial Museum,” he added, explaining that the CID won’t be surprised if it later transpired that some of the stolen articles spent “some time” in Das’ hands.

On March 24, Das’ modest suburban house — comprising four rooms — got large (36-inch) “home-theatre” colour TV sets. The same day, he celebrated his adopted son’s annaprasan (rice ceremony) with a pomp never associated with the household. “We will find out how he got so much money in such a short span,” a CID official said, adding that Das had given the names of some antique and art dealers of Park Circus and Chandni Chowk.

“His leads may take us somewhere,” CID inspector-general R.K. Johri said. “The interrogation and probe will continue,” he added.

Das got involved in the racket after diversifying to a business in used furniture from his original family trade involving brass and kansa (an alloy of bronze and some other metals) utensils.