Satadru Dutta, the main organiser of Lionel Messi’s tour in India, was sent to 14 days of police remand by a Bidhannagar court on Sunday.
His defence lawyers claimed that Dutta had been “framed” and that he could not be held responsible for the rampage inside the Salt Lake Stadium on Saturday during Messi’s visit.
“My client has been framed. He is just the event manager. Why would he be responsible? He did not damage the chairs, so why have the sections of destruction of public property been slapped on him?” Dutta’s lawyer asked.
The public prosecutor, however, claimed that as the organiser, Dutta was bound to take responsibility for the widespread rampage and the mismanagement that unfurled in the stadium, prompting Messi to leave the venue before time.
“Being the event organiser, it was his duty to decide who would be at the front and who would be behind. People had surrounded him (Messi), and the audience in the stands could not see him. People got angry. There was a rampage. Policemen got injured. We seek his custody for 14 days,” said the public prosecutor.
The court, after hearing both sides, sent Dutta to police remand for 14 days.
Dutta has been charged under sections of provocation with intent to cause riot, mischief leading to wilful damage of property, assault or use of criminal force to deter public servants from duty, voluntarily causing grievous hurt and severe offences involving injury, water supply disruption, fire, or explosives. Additional charges under the West Bengal Maintenance of Public Order Act and the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984, have also been slapped against Dutta.
On Saturday afternoon, Bidhannagar police picked up Dutta from a chartered flight at the Calcutta airport that carried Messi to Hyderabad for his next leg of the India trip. The flight took off after Dutta was deboarded.
Dutta spent the night at Narayanpur police station, said sources. On Sunday, after he was produced at Bidhannagar court, he was taken to Bidhannagar (south) police station, where senior officers questioned him.
Dutta “claimed innocence” and said that Messi leaving the venue before time had “nothing to do” with the organisers.
“He is making excuses. He cannot shrug off his responsibility for how the event
was managed,” said an officer.
Dutta would be kept at the lock-up inside Bidhannagar (south) police station over the next two weeks.