Following a preliminary inquiry into the Lionel Messi event controversy, the Bidhannagar police have registered a First Information Report (FIR) against former West Bengal Sports Minister and senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Aroop Biswas. The formal complaint was lodged by the event’s chief organiser, Satadru Dutta.
The case has been registered at the Bidhannagar South police station. Biswas and his associates have been booked under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including Section 318(4) (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), Section 61(2) (criminal conspiracy), Section 351(2) (criminal intimidation), Section 308(1) (extortion), and Section 3(5) (joint liability).
According to the complaint, Dutta organised the ‘GOAT India Tour – Kolkata Edition’ featuring football icon Lionel Messi at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan (Salt Lake Stadium) on December 13, 2025. Dutta alleged that during the preparation, he was threatened and extorted by then-sports minister Aroop Biswas, who allegedly demanded a massive cache of complimentary tickets and accreditation cards.
The complainant claimed he was warned the international event would be blocked unless he complied. According to the FIR, approximately 22,000 complimentary tickets were allegedly coerced from the organisers and subsequently sold on the black market at inflated prices by Biswas and his associates for wrongful financial gain.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Dutta, who was previously arrested in connection with irregularities surrounding the event, said that the state administration sacrificed him to shield influential political figures.
“They needed someone to be sacrificed, and I was made the scapegoat,” Dutta said. “The government’s intention was to shield their minister, which is why he wasn’t arrested initially. But if you review the live video footage and the timeline of events leading up to the tour, it was full-fledged extortion. He pushed me from every side and took over 22,000 tickets. He even forced his two minor nieces and another relative into the restricted ground area as ‘officials’ just to take photos with Messi. That is a form of extortion.”
Dutta criticised both the minister’s alleged abuse of power and a severe breakdown in local security protocol during the high-profile visit.
“Along with the sports minister, there was a massive failure on the part of the police department. Nobody is above the law. The police should never have allowed a minister and his family to use political clout to breach an international Z-Plus security protocol. It was about Lionel Messi’s safety and the state’s reputation,” Dutta said.
He added that the chaos disrupted the event schedule so severely that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee arrived at the stadium just five minutes after Messi had departed. “By the time she appeared, there would have been barely 200 people left inside the ground. They wanted someone to take the fall before the elections, so they arrested me to save the sports minister and protect the police department, especially since the police portfolio is held by Mamata Banerjee herself. But the public isn’t foolish. They knew what really happened, and Aroop Biswas lost his own constituency after 20 years because of it.”
Reflecting on his 15-year career bringing sports legends like Pele, Diego Maradona, Emiliano Martínez, Cafu, and Ronaldinho to India, Dutta described the intense pressure promoters face when operating in West Bengal.
“I’ve been doing this consistently for 15 years. During the peak of the TMC’s power, I even did events involving BJP leaders because they were sports lovers. It wasn’t about political alignment; it was a compulsion. If you want to pull off an event in Bengal, it is incredibly difficult if you don’t bow to what local political leaders dictate. In Bengal, it’s a form of Dadagiri (strong-arming). If you don’t comply, they withhold permissions or hassle you in various ways,” he alleged.
Dutta claimed that Biswas’s alleged high-handedness was an open secret in Kolkata’s sports corridors. “Go ask any sports club in the Maidan or any concert organiser—he has been extorting tickets for a long time. I have the guts to speak out. Clubs like East Bengal might stay silent out of fear, but Mohun Bagan will definitely confirm the intense ticket pressure they face. The Salt Lake Stadium administration worked hand-in-hand with the sports minister’s clout. It was a complete nexus.”
While acknowledging that high-ticket demands occur across the country, Dutta said that the interference in Kolkata crossed acceptable boundaries and severely compromised the football star’s personal space.
“I have organised events in several BJP-governed states. Ticket pressure and requests exist there, too, but they don’t interfere with the actual operations. A few tickets here and there are manageable. But here, the case was entirely different. It was about hunting for personal mileage and bringing family members into restricted zones. That never happened in Delhi, Mumbai, or even in Congress-ruled Hyderabad.”
Dutta concluded by detailing the discomfort caused to the Argentine captain during the event. “The minister was not supposed to be on the show floor, but he entered it anyway. The first thing he did was grab Messi’s waist and shoulder. In Latin American culture, that kind of uninvited physical contact is highly inappropriate. He wouldn’t leave Messi alone. Wherever I guided Messi, the minister followed us closely.”
Repeated calls and messages to Aroop Biswas regarding the allegations went unanswered.