Kolkata, June 18 (IANS) After ducking Bengal Police summons thrice for questioning in relation to alleged irregularities during Lionel Messi’s ‘GOAT India Tour’ event at the Yuba Bharati Krirangan in Salt Lake on December 13 last year, former West Bengal sports, youth affairs and power minister, Aroop Biswas, on Thursday morning, finally appeared before the cops.

Aroop Biswas appeared at the Bidhannagar (South) Police Station in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, to face questioning in the matter.

Prior to that, he was summoned for interrogation by the cops of the Bidhannagar (South) Police Station thrice in the matter. However, every time he avoided appearing at the said police station for interrogation under some pretext or the other.

Meanwhile, on June 10, Calcutta High Court’s single-judge Bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharya had granted Biswas protection from coercive police action including arrest in the matter till August 17.

However, the principal organizer of the Messi event, Satadru Dutta, on June 16, approached the Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court’s Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Partha Sarathi Sen challenging the decision of the single-judge Bench granting interim protection to Biswas in the matter.

Biswas, had been untraceable since the time an FIR was lodged against him based on the complaint filed by Dutta at Bidhannagar (South) Police Station, holding the former sports minister as the main person responsible for the Messi event mismanagement.

Dutta, who himself was arrested by the police last year when Biswas was an influential member of the previous Mamata Banerjee-led Cabinet, in his police complaint claimed that a total of 70,000 tickets were printed for Messi’s event at the Yuba Bharati Sports Complex in December last year and out of that the former sports minister alone took 22,000 tickets, showing the weight and influence of his position.

Dutta also accused Biswas of distributing those tickets to his acquaintances and also selling them at premium prices in the market.

An email was sent to the Bidhannagar Police Commissioner Tripurari Atharv by one of Messi’s team members who had come as his advisor for the ‘GOAT India Tour’ last year, again accusing Biswas of being responsible for the chaos at the event.

–IANS

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