The Calcutta High Court on Monday firmly dismissed a series of Public Interest Litigations (PILs) seeking to transfer the investigation into the Salt Lake stadium vandalism incident during the Lionel Messi event to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The court upheld the ongoing probe by a state-formed Special Investigation Team (SIT), stating that an investigation cannot be handed over to a central agency "on mere asking or merely because a party has levelled allegations."
Court Upholds State Probe, Seeks More Details
A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Partha Sarathi Sen heard the batch of PILs, which demanded a court-monitored or CBI-led inquiry. The bench emphasized that directing a CBI investigation is reserved for "rare and exceptional cases" where it can be precisely established that the current probe is compromised. The judges noted that nothing was presented before them to "establish that investigation/inquiry is vitiated or polluted."
The High Court also refused to scrap the inquiry panel set up by the West Bengal government, led by a former High Court judge, which is probing the circumstances that led to the chaos. "Prima facie, we are unable to hold that appointment of inquiry committee is bad in law," the court observed. However, the bench acknowledged merit in arguments calling for a deeper probe to ascertain if "the events had taken place by involvement of state with the organizer."
Arguments and Allegations in Court
During the hearing, the West Bengal government, represented by Senior Counsel Kalyan Banerjee, challenged the maintainability of the PILs, labeling them a "political gimmick." Banerjee argued that the PILs seeking probes by the CBI, Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), and Enforcement Directorate (ED) were "misleading and not maintainable in law."
Detailing the pass distribution, Banerjee stated that while the organizers requested 400 close-proximity passes, only 27 were issued. He clarified that 373 duty passes were issued by the police. Among specific allocations, 12 close-proximity passes were issued to the intelligence branch, six to the KP monitoring cell, and 25 to senior police officers. "The state has no role to play apart from the law-and-order situation," Banerjee asserted.
Counsel for the arrested event organizer, Satadru Dutta, argued that his client was being unfairly blamed. They stated that the organizers had sent requisitions for 400 passes for ground personnel, ticketing was handled by a contracted aggregator, and "Messi was under NSG protection" with police managing the entry points.
Next Steps and Pending Issues
The High Court has directed the state government and the event organizer to file their affidavits within the next four weeks. The case will be heard again after February 16. In an interim relief, the court asked the Bidhannagar court, where the main case is being heard, to allow Satadru Dutta to sign his lawyer's vakalatnama so he can be legally represented.
A separate issue regarding a statue of Lionel Messi was also raised in a PIL filed by Adhikari. The state's counsel claimed the statue was built by Fire and Emergency Services Minister Sujit Bose "in his personal capacity." The bench, questioning how a statue on public property could be erected privately, will hear this matter on Tuesday.
