Sports promoter Satadru Dutta, who organized Lionel Messi’s tour of India, said he regretted hosting the event in Kolkata following the controversy at the Salt Lake Stadium during the Argentine star’s visit.The event came under criticism after Messi left the stadium within 25 minutes amid crowd control issues and security concerns. Dutta said he never expected the situation to develop this way.“Definitely, I regret it. I could have sold this event elsewhere and made more money. But as a Bengali from Kolkata, I wanted football fans to experience it here. I never imagined that an immature person trying to achieve his own mileage would ruin the entire event,” Satadru Dutta said in an interview with Hindustan Times..Dutta was later arrested by police and spent 38 days in custody. He has now accused the Mamata Banerjee-led All India Trinamool Congress government of political interference and blackmail, claiming that the event was sabotaged.He also raised concerns about the security situation during Messi’s appearance.He added: “Messi had nearly a billion dollars in insurance coverage. Imagine if something had happened to him on Earth, it would have been a national embarrassment.”
That’s why Messi’s team decided they couldn’t continue because he doesn’t like suffocating situations where people gather around him.”Dutta said that all required approvals and security protocols had been completed on his part before the event.“This was a Z and Z-plus category event and the Home Ministry had given instructions for this security cover to the Bengal government.
Interestingly, even after that, the Prime Minister herself was the chief guest, and she also had Z-plus security. As an event organizer, I have completed all security, licensing and permissions approvals. We had at least 15 to 20 meetings with police officials. Therefore, on my part, all standard operating procedures and protocols were followed.
But I was never a law enforcer. I was just the organizer. If you see, this Z and Z-plus security can only be implemented by management and police department.
“So when I entered the ground with Messi, I immediately noticed many people inside who were not supposed to be there.”Dutta further claimed that several unauthorized persons entered the ground and surrounded Messi.“When I entered, I saw at least 100 to 120 people who were not part of the parade and did not even have entry cards. They started surrounding Messi and taking pictures. The first thing I said to the Communist Party in Bidhannagar was: ‘Sir, how are these people here?’ They were not allowed in.”
Then the Sports Minister entered the ground despite not participating in the show. The first thing he did was touch Messi’s shoulder and waist while taking pictures, which is completely inappropriate.
Messi’s manager immediately came to me and said: “This guy was not part of the show.” Why is he here? Why are there so many people here? Dutta further said.He said that the responsibility for maintaining security lies with the administration and the police.“The police and the administration are responsible for it. If there was a flaw in my administration, how could Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi function smoothly with the same team? In those cities, the governments and police followed the accreditation system and the show ran properly.”Dutta said he repeatedly asked officials to vacate the land but no action was taken.He added: “I have been organizing events in stadiums for 15 years, and this has never happened before. Usually taking two or three extra photos is normal. But here someone turned it into a private event, calling in bureaucrats, family members and others to take photos. The general manager and the Communist Party were standing there, and no one stopped them. I kept shouting and asking them to vacate the ground, but no one listened. There were at least a thousand police inside the stadium.”