Kolkata, June 23 (IANS) A division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday upheld a previous court order by the single-judge bench of the same court granting interim protection from coercive police action to former West Bengal Sports Minister Aroop Biswas till August 17.

The matter relates to alleged irregularities during footaballer Lionel Messi’s ‘GOAT India Tour’ event at the Yuva Bharati Krirangan in Kolkata’s Salt Lake on December 13 last year, where crowd management issues reportedly led to chaos and the footballer’s early exit due to security concerns.

The West Bengal government had recently initiated an investigation into the matter, as Biswas, the former Sports and Power Minister in the previous Mamata Banerjee-led Cabinet, was accused of being the reason behind the mismanagement.

Thereafter, Biswas approached the Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharya, seeking interim protection from coercive police action, including arrest.

On June 10, Justice Bhattacharya’s bench granted Biswas interim protection till August 17 but said that the police will continue the investigation as per the law and in the event of any notice being issued, the petitioner must appear before the investigating agency.

Thereafter, on June 16, the organiser of the Messi event last year, Satadru Dutta, on Tuesday approached the division bench of Calcutta High Court challenging the single-judge vacation bench’s order granting interim protection to Biswas.

The matter came up for hearing at the said division bench of Calcutta High Court’s Acting Chief Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Partha Sarathi Sen on Tuesday and at the end of the hearing the division bench chose to uphold the earlier single-judge bench order granting interim protection to Biswas in the matter till August 17.

During the hearing, Dutta’s counsel said in the court that although the single-judge bench had earlier granted the interim protection to Biswas, the charges against him are quite serious and therefore the interim protections should be lifted.

Dutta’s counsel also claimed that the police in the matter, too, have become inactive and no solid investigation had progressed after the FIR was registered.

In his counter-argument, Biswas’s counsel questions the locus standi of Dutta to challenge the order of the single-judge bench and also said that after a specific court order in the matter Dutta did not have any business to question the progress of investigation.

After hearing the arguments of both the parties, Justice Chakraborty wanted to know whether Biswas was cooperating with the investigation, as well as whether he was appearing before the Investigating Officer.

In response, the state lawyer said that Biswas was cooperating with the investigation.

Thereafter, the division bench said that the protection given to Biswas by the single-judge bench till August 17 will persist for the time being.

The next hearing in the matter has been fixed on July 2.

–IANS

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