The legal battle over the alleged mismanagement during Lionel Messi’s ‘GOAT India Tour’ event in Kolkata has intensified, with the interim protection granted to former West Bengal Minister Aroop Biswas being challenged before a higher bench of the Calcutta High Court.
The organiser of the Messi event, Satadru Dutta, on Tuesday approached the division bench of Calcutta High Court’s Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Partha Sarathi Sen, challenging the earlier order passed by Justice Saugata Bhattacharya’s bench. Dutta’s petition has been accepted, and the matter is expected to be heard this week.
A single-judge vacation bench of the Calcutta High Court had last week granted Biswas interim protection from coercive police action, including arrest, till August 17. The order has now been challenged before a division bench of the same court.
The case relates to alleged irregularities during Lionel Messi’s ‘GOAT India Tour’ event held at the Yuva Bharati Krirangan in Salt Lake on December 13 last year, where crowd management issues reportedly resulted in chaos and the football star’s early exit due to security concerns.
The West Bengal government recently initiated an investigation into the matter, with Biswas, who was the sports and power minister in the previous Mamata Banerjee-led cabinet, being accused of being linked to the alleged mismanagement.
Following this, Biswas approached the Calcutta High Court seeking protection from coercive police action.
While granting interim protection, the court allowed the police investigation to continue according to law and stated that Biswas would have to appear before the investigating agency if any notice was issued.
During the hearing before the single-judge vacation bench, the counsel representing Dutta alleged that while 70,000 tickets were issued for the event, Biswas had taken 22,000 tickets for people from his Assembly constituency of Tollygunge in the southern outskirts of Kolkata.
Dutta’s counsel further alleged that such tickets were sold at premium rates to several clubs.
The police had recently started an investigation based on a complaint filed by Dutta and registered an FIR against Biswas.
The development comes amid another controversy involving Biswas’ brother, Swarup Biswas, who was recently arrested by police on charges including corruption, extortion and inappropriate behaviour towards women supporting staff in the Bengali film industry.