The agency that brought Lionel Messi to India and organised the event that descended into chaos at the Salt Lake Stadium had obtained all necessary permissions from government agencies, sources said.
Probing questions are now being asked about the fiasco involving A Satadru Dutta Initiative, a proprietorship company. Did the disaster represent just a company’s failure to deliver on a promise, or a far bigger systemic collapse?
Were the police, civic bodies, sports department and fire and emergency services looking the other way when the fans went on the rampage? Was it because they were too busy clicking selfies? Or did they facilitate the pandemonium to serve their own interest groups?
The Telegraph spoke to the police, some of the organisers, and officials of government agencies to understand what went wrong.
Sources said Satadru Dutta had shared a detailed programme schedule with the police and the local administration, but what happened on the pitch did not follow the script.
“They had shared a minute-by-minute schedule of the event. However, things got derailed the moment Messi entered the stadium,” an officer from the Bidhannagar police commissionerate said.
Another source said that Dutta and representatives of the government agencies had held multiple meetings to fine-tune the event.
State home department sources said the local police were in charge of managing the traffic outside the stadium and the crowd in the stands. They said the security of Messi and the other guests was the responsibility of the central forces because the Argentine was a Z-category protectee.
Several people were seen getting uncomfortably close to Messi. The police said they were investigating how so many people had managed to enter the inner circle despite the Z-category cover.
The police said the organisers had issued security passes for entry into the field. “We have sought a detailed list of how many such passes were issued,” an officer said.
Sources said the local police lacked access to the inner ring around Messi but some outsiders had succeeded in penetrating it. “How this happened, and on whose permission, is also part of our inquiry,” the officersaid.
Communication gap
Many who bought tickets but could not see Messi said they had been under the impression that he would play at the stadium. Clarity on Messi’s schedule inside the stadium could have caused less disappointment among the spectators, many said.
Faulty audio
The emcees were “not audible”, and the audience was unable to understand what Messi was doing on the field.
Inner ring breach
Several people broke Messi’s inner cordon and were seen standing close to him and taking selfies. Messi was visibly annoyed.
Water bottles
The police had banned the entry of water bottles inside the stadium. However, the organisers sold water bottles at a premium. The same bottles were later used as missiles that landed on the pitch in hundreds.
An event organiser who was not part of Dutta’s team said it was the thumb rule to sell bottles without caps. “If you sell bottles without caps, you can’t use them as missiles,” the organiser said.
Screen silence
The owner of another event management company, and people who had witnessed similar events being pulled off successfully at the stadium, said the use of giant screens to communicate with the audience would have helped control the chaos.
“When Messi and the others were being taken off the ground -- the plan was to bring him back once the ground had been cleared --- the audience thought that he was leaving,” the owner of the event management company said.
“That was the trigger for the rampage. Once the fans started throwing bottles, it became a question of Messi’s security and he had to be evacuated. Had I been the organiser, I would have used the giant screens to communicate with the audience and keep them calm.”
Had Messi used a vehicle to do a full lap of the stadium, or the organisers erected a dais for him, the flop show might have been avoided, somesuggested.