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Satadru Dutta, the arrested main organiser of Lionel Messi’s lawsuit successful Kolkata connected December 13, has told investigators that the shot icon was “unhappy with being touched oregon hugged” during his quality astatine the Salt Lake Stadium and near earlier staying determination full-time arsenic scheduled, a root successful the SIT said connected Saturday (December 20, 2025).
During prolonged questioning by officers of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), Dutta said Mr. Messi “did not similar being touched connected the backmost oregon being hugged” and that the interest had been conveyed successful beforehand by the overseas information officials liable for the footballer’s protection, helium said.
“Despite repeated nationalist announcements to restrain the crowd, determination was nary impact. The mode successful which Mr. Messi was surrounded and embraced was wholly unacceptable to the World Cup-winning footballer,” Dutta told investigators during his grilling connected Friday (December 19), the root said.
West Bengal Sports Minister Aroop Biswas was seen successful adjacent proximity to Mr. Messi passim the programme, with visuals showing him holding the footballer astir the waist portion posing for photographs.
Mr. Biswas has been accused of utilizing his power to let relatives and idiosyncratic acquaintances entree to Mr. Messi. Amid mounting criticism, helium resigned from his station arsenic sports curate pending completion of the investigation.
Investigators are besides probing however specified a ample fig of radical gained entree to the crushed area.
Dutta besides claimed that initially lone 150 crushed passes were issued, which, however, was tripled erstwhile a “very influential person” reached the stadium and “overpowered him”. Police are examining whether the expanded entree straight contributed to the breakdown of assemblage control.
“The arrested accused besides claimed that erstwhile that peculiar influential idiosyncratic reached the stadium, each the flow-chart for the Mr. Messi programme got disturbed and helium could not power it,” the authoritative told PTI.
Dutta besides disclosed fiscal details related to Mr. Messi’s India visit.
“Lionel Messi was paid ₹89 crore for the tour, portion ₹11 crore was paid arsenic taxation to the Indian government,” helium told investigators, placing the full expenditure astatine ₹100 crore. Of this amount, 30% was sourced from sponsors, portion different 30% was generated done summons sales, sources said.
Meanwhile, an magnitude of implicit ₹20 crore was recovered successful the frozen slope accounts of Dutta by the officers of the SIT, the serviceman said.
On Friday (December 19), pursuing the raids astatine Dutta’s house, sleuths of the SIT seized respective documents, helium added.
“Dutta claimed that the magnitude successful his slope relationship was the wealth which helium got from selling the tickets for the Mr. Messi lawsuit successful Kolkata and Hyderabad and besides from the sponsors. We are verifying his claims,” the serviceman said.
Thousands of spectators had purchased high-priced tickets to be the lawsuit astatine Salt Lake Stadium, but the programme descended into chaos arsenic a ample fig of radical crowded astir Mr. Messi connected the field, making him hardly disposable from the galleries and triggering choler among fans, immoderate of whom aboriginal vandalised parts of the stadium.
The West Bengal authorities had acceptable up the Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising elder IPS officers Piyush Pandey, Javed Shamim, Supratim Sarkar and Muralidhar to analyse the vandalism astatine Argentine shot prima Lionel Messi’s lawsuit astatine the Salt Lake stadium. The SIT is besides investigating information lapses, entree violations, and the relation of organisers and officials successful the incident, the serviceman added.
