The Bidhannagar police recently said that Satadru Dutta, Lionel Messi GOAT India Tour’s arrested organiser, has blamed an ‘influential’ person and also officials for the chaos at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata during the Argentine footballer’s event earlier this month.

As per senior police officers, Dutta told them that he had initially issued 150 ground passes but had to triple that number owing to requests from influential people.

During the interrogation, Dutta said he was earlier briefed by Messi’s security that the footballer doesn’t like being touched or hugged.

“So far, it seems Messi’s personal team was unhappy with the way he was moving from one side to another with the crowd. Despite repeated public announcements for restraint, people continued to surround him and pull him for pictures, etc. This made his security agency alert him, and eventually they left before time,” said an officer.

However, Dutta has reportedly denied his role in vandalism and stated that he had everything in control “until VIPs arrived”.

As per the police, Dutta has blamed a particular person for allowing many inside at the last moment.

The police officer said Dutta has informed them that Messi was paid Rs 89 crore for the GOAT tour. The organisers also had to pay an additional Rs 11 crore as tax for holding the tour.

The officer confirmed that the bank account of Dutta, which has been frozen, has funds to the tune of Rs 20 crore.