Minister Aroop Biswas resigns, DCP suspended over Messi event fiasco

As the political storm intensified in the wake of a botched up “GOAT Tour” —triggering widespread chaos during the highly publicised visit of football superstar Lionel Messi to Kolkata last Saturday, head started to roll with Bengal Sports Minister Aroop Biswas a close confidant of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday tendering his resignation citing the ongoing investigation into the mismanagement of the event as the reason for stepping down.

Though his resignation was yet to be accepted, inside sources said, the Chief Minister, who had asked him to put in his papers, was buying time to take a final decision.

Besides Biswas, Bengal Director General of Police Rajiv Kumar, and Bidhannagar Police Commissioner Mukesh Kumar were asked to show cause within 24 hours for the reason behind the fiasco. Another IPS officer and Bidhannagar Deputy Commissioner of Police Aneesh Sarkar was placed under immediate suspension for negligence of duty.

While the drastic action extended to the administrative circles, a show-cause notice was issued to Principal Secretary, Youth and Sports Affairs, Rajesh Kumar Sinha (IAS). The Chief Executive Officer of Salt Lake Stadium, Deb Kumar Nandan, too, was removed from his post, sources said.

All the quick measures came in view of a preliminary recommendation made by a special inquiry committee formed by the Chief Minister comprising Justice Asim Roy, a former High Court Judge, State Chief Secretary Manoj Panth and Home Secretary Nandini Chakrabarty, sources said.

Kolkata football fans and in their wake the entire political fraternity erupted in anger following the utter failure of the police and sports administration to manage the venue on December 13 triggering a chaos in the field that not only led to Messi’s quick departure from the Salt Lake Stadium but also a large-scale vandalism whence the angry spectators failing to get a glimpse of the soccer superstar ransacked the entire stadium causing an estimated loss of Rs 2 crore of the government property.

The general refrain was that the Sports Minister and another of his cabinet colleagues, Sujit Basu, along with some film actors and their acquaintances, “Literally gheraoed and hijacked Messi to block the vision of the general public who purchased tickets spending as high as Rs 15,000 sitting in the gallery,” members from the crowd complained.

So much so that the Chief Minister herself, film star Shah Rukh Khan and former India captain Sourav Ganguly, who were scheduled to participate in the programme, failed to enter the stadium. Messi, accompanied by teammates Luis Suarez and Rodrigo De Paul, spent only 20 minutes on the field, heavily surrounded by officials, politicians, and security personnel, and left the field as the situation went out of control.

Soon, there was anger in the public with Bengal Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari calling the programme a “TMC Loot-Fest at Yuva Bharati.”

Reacting to the Tuesday’s developments Adhikari said, “It is all an eye wash planned at the instance of the Chief Minister and she does not have the guts to do anything to Rajiv Kumar who hid papers related to Sharada scam, she cannot do anything to Aroop Biswas as he is her close confidant and he has tendered his resignation at her instance and will withdraw it or will be given some good post only after t the situation subsides.”

Meanwhile, the inquiry committee appointed by the Chief Minister has further recommended the formation of a Special Investigation Team comprising four senior IPS officers — Piyush Pandey, Javed Shamim, Supratim Sarkar and Muralidhar-to conduct a thorough probe into the incident.

More than half a dozen people, including Shatadru Dutta, the main organiser of the event, have already been arrested in the case.