KOLKATA: A swimming pool on one level, a soccer ground on the terrace and an expansive office: These were the findings that greeted the special investigating team (SIT), probing the mismanagement at the Lionel Messi event at the Salt Lake stadium, as the cops raided chief organiser Satadru Dutta’s home on Friday.The inspection of the three-storey Rishra home of Dutta, now arrested, an officer said, widened the investigation angle beyond crowd-control failures on the field to suspected large-scale financial impropriety. But officers maintained it was a “procedural search”. Documents and agreement papers were checked though nothing was seized.
A Bidhannagar Police detective department team reached the home early on Saturday after a visit to the Rishra PS. Five officers entered the house. Only a domestic help was present. The team questioned the caretaker and checked every room. Dutta was arrested on Dec 13, within hours of the Messi mayhem at the Salt Lake stadium. Being the chief organiser, he was held responsible for what cops called “serious lapses in planning and execution” that led to the disorder.The SIT’s probe has expanded to examine alleged financial irregularities of around Rs 100 crore, linked to the Messi event. Officers said an inquiry indicated the involvement of office-bearers of the organising body and its associate organisers in illegal financial transactions, largely centred around Messi-related activities. Police said Rs 10 lakh to Rs 30 lakh were charged for every photo taken with Messi but no payment record existed. The fees were possibly taken in cash and now being treated as unaccounted-for money.Officers said records of nearly 50% ticket sales were not maintained. Yuva Bharati has 66,000 seats. The organising body claimed only half the total tickets were sold and the rest were given free. But cops argued it would have led to a substantial loss, a possibility they found implausible for a commercial sporting event of this scale. “Opacity seems to have been deliberate in the ticketing process,” said an officer.
