In an important twist that is related to the wild Lionel Messi incident in Kolkata, the Shatadru Dutta, the main organiser of the India visit of the football star, has been remanded to judicial custody up to January 9. The Court at Bidhannagar, the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) passed the order upon the expiry of his police remand.
On Sunday, Dutta was taken before the court, where the prosecution wanted judicial custody due to the need to continue investigations. However, the defence filed a bail petition claiming that Dutta had already hosted similar high profile Messi events in Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Delhi in the past with no reported disturbances and law-and-order problems.
Contrasting the bail petition, the special public prosecutor informed the court that no professional event management company was contracted to handle the Kolkata programme as is so in other cities. The prosecution had also charged Dutta with making unlawful profits out of the event and termed him as a powerful man who might even tamper with the investigation in case he was released.
The court was also informed that on the one hand, the bank accounts of Dutta were frozen, and on the other hand, the refund process to the ticket holders will be lengthy. It is based on these grounds that the prosecution requested the court to deny bail. Following the hearing of the two parties, the court decided in favour of judicial custody up to January 9.
The case is based on what happened on December 13 at Salt Lake stadium where thousands of fans assembled to get a glimpse of Lionel Messi. Mood happened to run high when fans could not see the football star because of a crowd around him. It did not take long before the situation got out of control with spectators throwing water bottles and other items at the police personnel.
To date, ten people are arrested because of the violence. According to police sources, the investigation is being undertaken to be completed within a short time and additional custody can be requested as the case proceeds to the trial.
