Organized by sports promoter Satdru Dutta. Lionel MessiOn his tour of India, he said he regretted hosting the event in Kolkata following the controversy at the Salt Lake Stadium during the Argentinian star’s visit.The event came under fire after Messi walked out of the stadium after 25 minutes amid crowd control issues and security concerns. Dutta said that he never expected the situation to unfold like this.“Absolutely, I regret it. I could have sold the event elsewhere and made more money. But being a Bengali from Kolkata, I wanted the football fans here to experience it. I never thought that an ignorant person would ruin the whole event trying to make his mileage,” Satadru Dutta said in an interview with Hindustan Times..Dutta was later arrested by the 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 expressed concern over the security situation during Messi’s appearance.“Messi had an insurance coverage of close to a billion dollars. Imagine if something happened to him on the ground, it would have become a national embarrassment. That’s why Messi’s team decided he can’t continue because he doesn’t like claustrophobic situations where people gather around him,” he was quoted as saying by HT.Dutta said that all required approvals and security protocols were completed by him before the event.“This event was a Z and Z-plus category event, and the Ministry of Home Affairs provided instructions to the Bengal government for this security cover. Interestingly, even then the Chief Minister himself was the chief guest and had Z Plus security. As an event organizer, I completed every approval related to security, licensing and permits. We had at least 15 to 20 meetings with police officials. So all SOPs and protocols were followed by me. But I was never a law enforcement officer. I was just an administrator. If seen, this Z and Z Plus security can be implemented only by administration and police department. So when I entered the ground with Messi, I immediately saw a lot of people inside who shouldn’t have been there.Dutta further claimed that several unauthorized people entered the ground and surrounded Messi.“When I entered, I saw at least 100 to 120 uninvited people who were not part of the show flow and did not even have access cards. They surrounded Massey and started taking photos. First I told the Bedhanagar CP, ‘Sir, how are these people here? They were not given access.’ The sports minister then entered the ground despite not being part of the show flow. While taking photos, he first touched Messi’s shoulder and back, which was highly inappropriate. Macy’s manager immediately came to me and said, ‘This guy wasn’t part of the show flow. Why is he here? Why are so many people here?’ Dutta added.He said that the responsibility of maintaining security lies with the administration and the police.“The police and management are responsible for this. If there was a flaw in my management, how could Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi run with the same team? The governments and police in those cities followed the accreditation system, and the show ran smoothly.”Dutta said that he repeatedly asked the authorities to vacate the ground but no action was taken.“I have been organizing stadium events for the past 15 years, and this has never happened before. Normally, taking two or three extra photos is normal, but here someone turned it into a private event, called bureaucrats, family members and others for photos, the DG and CP were standing there, and no one stopped them. I kept shouting and requesting at least a thousand policemen to listen to them, but there were not a thousand policemen there. stadium,” he added.
