The three-member team would prepare their report on their return to New Delhi and submit it to the home ministry at the earliest, Kapoor said at the Patna airport today.

Earlier in an informal chat with reporters after a meeting with senior officials of Tirhut division in Muzaffarpur, he said the team's attention had been drawn to protection being provided to criminals by politicians and also to the alleged spurt in incidents of kidnapping in the state.

The team arrived on Wednesday to undertake a two-day on the spot assessment of the situation after the recent killing of two MLAs in the state.

Earlier, the team had decided to give a clean chit to the Rabri Devi Government but after some more deliberation, the team decided to play it safe and take more time to go over certain pointswhich it felt it had missed.

Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.