Sports promoter Satadru Dutta, who organized Lionel Messi’s tour of India, said he regretted hosting the event in Kolkata following the controversy at the Salt Lake Stadium during the Argentine star’s visit.The event came under fire after Messi left the stadium within 25 minutes due to crowd control issues and safety concerns. Dutta said he never expected the situation to develop the way it did.“I totally regret it. I could have sold the event elsewhere and made more money. But as a Bengali from Kolkata, I wanted football fans to experience it here. I never imagined that one immature person trying to create his own mileage would ruin the whole event,” Satadru Dutta told Hindustan Times..Dutta was later arrested by the police and spent 38 days in custody. He has now accused the All India Trinamool Congress government led by Mamata Banerjee of political interference and blackmail and claimed that the event was sabotaged.During Messi’s performance, he also expressed concern about the security situation.“Messi had almost a billion dollars in insurance coverage. Imagine if something happened to him on the ground, it would have become a national disgrace. That’s why Messi’s team decided they can’t continue because he doesn’t like claustrophobic situations where people crowd around him,” he said, as quoted by HT.Dutta said 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 gave instructions for this security cover to the Bengal government. Interestingly, even then the chief minister herself was the chief guest and she also had Z-plus security. As the organizer of the event, I completed all the approvals regarding protection, licenses and permits. We had at least 15 to 20 meetings with my police officials and all the permissions were as per law. enforcer, I was only the organizer if you see, this Z and Z-plus security can only be enforced by the administration and the police department, so when I entered the ground with Messi, I immediately noticed a lot of people 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 flow of the show and did not even have access cards. They started surrounding Messi and taking pictures. The first thing I said to the Bidhannagar CP was, ‘Sir, how are these people here? They were not allowed access.’ After that, the Sports Minister entered the ground despite not being part of the show flow. The first thing he did was touch Messi’s shoulder and waist while taking pictures, which was very inappropriate. Messi’s manager immediately came to me and said, “This guy wasn’t part of the show flow. Why is he here? Why are there so many people here?” Dutta further said.He said the responsibility of maintaining security lies with the administration and the police.“The police and the administration are responsible. If there was a fault in my leadership, how did Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi run smoothly with the same team? In these cities, the governments and the police followed the accreditation system and the show ran properly.”Dutta said he had repeatedly requested officials to clear the land but no action was taken.“I have been organizing events at the stadium for the last 15 years and this has never happened before. Usually it is normal to take two or three extra photos. But here someone turned it into a private event, called bureaucrats, family members and others to take photos. The CEO and CP were standing there and no one stopped them. I kept shouting and asking them to clear the ground, but no one listened. There were at least a thousand policemen inside the stadium.
