Court extends interim protection to e Bengal Sports Minister in Messi event chaos
The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday extended interim protection from coercive action to former West Bengal Sports Minister Aroop Biswas till November 30 in a
The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday extended interim protection from coercive action to former West Bengal Sports Minister Aroop Biswas till November 30 in a case linked to the chaos at the Lionel Messi event at Salt Lake Stadium in December last year. The court also said Biswas's plea seeking quashing of the criminal proceedings against him will be heard again on November 17. At the same time, Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya made it clear that the pendency of the matter before the court will not prevent the investigating agency from continuing its probe and filing a report before the jurisdictional magistrate. Read Full Story During the hearing, the state's Advocate General Surojit Nath Mitra placed before the court two reports, as directed earlier.
One report was submitted by the Director General of Police, West Bengal, and the other by the Commissioner of Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate in connection with the investigation into the incident. Justice Bhattacharyya then extended the interim order protecting Biswas from coercive police action till November 30 or until further orders, whichever is earlier. Lawyers appearing for Biswas told the court that he had attended police summons on three occasions, in line with earlier directions. The high court had on June 10 granted interim protection to Biswas in the case filed by Satadru Dutta, owner of the event management company that organised the Messi show. While granting that protection, the court had observed that similar programmes featuring the Argentine football star were organised smoothly in Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi, and that the failure to conduct the Kolkata event properly had left a blot on the city's football-loving image.
On June 10, Justice Bhattacharyya had also directed the Commissioner of Bidhannagar Police to conduct an independent inquiry into why the event on December 13, 2025, could not be organised properly and to submit a report. Dutta has accused Biswas of extortion and criminal intimidation, abuse of official and political influence, and the illegal diversion, monetisation and sale of complimentary tickets for the Messi event for wrongful gain. In his complaint lodged at Bidhannagar South police station, Dutta alleged that he was forced to hand over a large number of complimentary passes, accreditation cards and close-proximity passes to Biswas, and that these were wrongfully distributed for financial gain. Dutta, the event management company owner, was jailed for more than a month after his arrest in connection with the botched event.
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