WB govt show-causes DGP, others; suspends dy CP of Bidhannagar over Messi event 'mismanagement'

Kolkata: The West Bengal government on Tuesday issued show-cause notices to senior police officers, including the DGP, over alleged mismanagement during the Lionel Messi event at the Salt Lake stadium last week.

The state government also suspended Bidhannagar Deputy Police Commissioner Aneesh Sarkar, a statement from Chief Secretary Manoj Pant’s office said.

The actions were taken following the recommendations of the probe panel constituted to investigate the alleged mismanagement during the December 13 event at the Salt Lake football stadium.

The show-cause notice to DGP Rajeev Kumar sought an explanation over the lapses reported at the venue and set a deadline of 24 hours to reply, the statement said.

Bidhannagar Police Commissioner Mukesh Kumar was also served a similar show-cause notice and asked to clarify the role and conduct of the commissionerate in the management of the event, which had led to large-scale chaos and vandalism by spectators within the stadium premises on Saturday.

The state government suspended the Bidhannagar deputy commissioner and initiated departmental proceedings against him for reported negligence of duty on the day of the event, the statement said.

Youth Affairs and Sports Department Principal Secretary Rajesh Kumar Sinha has also been show-caused over the alleged lapses, while the services of Salt Lake stadium Chief Executive Officer Deb Kumar Nandan were withdrawn with immediate effect.

As per recommendations of the three-member probe committee headed by retired Justice Ashim Kumar Roy, the state constituted a Special Investigation Team comprising four senior IPS officers—Piyush Pandey, Javed Shamim, Supratim Sarkar and Muralidhar—to conduct a thorough probe into the stadium chaos which forced the short-termination of the marquee football event.

The chaos led the football superstar to leave the venue early and caused an estimated damage of nearly Rs 2 crore.