Messi event chaos: Bengal police summon 6 event managers for quizzing, arrest 5 for vandalism

KOLKATA: The West Bengal Police on Monday sent summons to officials of six organisations, which were in charge of managing various aspects of the Lionel Messi event at the Salt Lake stadium, where spectators resorted to large-scale chaos and vandalism two days ago, alleging “gross mismanagement”, an officer said.

Acting on an FIR on the spectator rampage that led to an estimated loss of over Rs 2 crore of stadium properties, police have also arrested five people so far on charges of vandalism and assault on police personnel.

Among the notices which were served to the event organisers included those to Laltu Das, manager of Satadru Datta – the now arrested prime organiser of the event, police said.

Summonses were also dispatched by the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate to Manali Bhattacharya, an event manager, Supriya Dasgupta, Sambaran Karmakar, Aditya Das and Amit Kumar, a senior official of a food delivery aggregator.

All six officials, police said, were involved in managing the marquee event at the stadium in their respective capacities.

They have been asked to be present for questioning at the commissionerate office on Tuesday, the police officer added.

Sources said that Das, who represented organiser Satadru Datta at a meeting with senior police officials, where the standard operating procedures were discussed threadbare a day prior to the December 13 programme, will be questioned for allegedly violating the dos and don’ts while organising the event.

The police are also trying to pinpoint accountability for allowing unauthorised food and beverage sales inside the stadium, the containers of which were later used as missiles by the irate crowd during the rampage.

Meanwhile, the Bidhannagar Police arrested five spectators on charges of vandalism and destruction of public property during the stadium violence.

The police said the suspects were identified based on video footage evidence and booked under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita pertaining to destruction of public property, obstructing public servants from discharging duty and assaulting personnel in uniform.

The process of identifying and booking other suspects in the stadium vandalism and violence is currently underway, the officer said.

Satadru Datta, the prime organiser of the marquee event, was arrested on Saturday, shortly after the stadium fiasco. The latest bookings take the arrest figure to six.