Lionel Messi’s “GOAT tour” promoter Satadru Dutta has hit back at the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) after the party’s defeat in the Bengal elections. Dutta, who was jailed for 37 days after Messi’s visit to the Salt Lake Stadium descended into chaos, has threatened to sue the party for Rs 100 crore.
In a series of posts uploaded on social media, the entrepreneur alleged that the TMC ruined three years of his hard work and defamed him in the aftermath of the incident at Salt Lake. He added that he would take the party to court and fight the case till the end.
“Just because you have lost in the elections, don’t think that you have been punished. I will lodge a defamation case and I will go to the Supreme Court if need be. I will fight till the end,” Satadru said after the election results were announced.
Dutta also slammed outgoing Bengal sports minister Aroop Biswas for thrusting himself and his associates in front of Messi, which reportedly left the footballer irritated. The crowding around the athlete by the minister and his associates angered the capacity crowd at Salt Lake, leading to vandalism inside the stadium and cutting short Messi’s visit.
Dutta blamed Biswas for the incident and said that the outgoing minister would have to answer for his actions.
“Repeatedly, I told him not to click pictures here. But he used his power and went on to take photos. He will have to pay for this,” Dutta said.
Following the Kolkata debacle, Dutta spent 37 days in jail after police registered two separate cases against him and others in connection with the incident.
Meanwhile, former India cricketer Manoj Tiwary also criticised Biswas. After announcing that he was quitting the TMC, Tiwary said that Biswas did not know the “A, B, C, D of sports” and had blocked the state’s sports policy during his tenure.
TMC were ousted from Bengal after a 15-year rule. BJP came to the power in Bengal for the first time after sweeping the polls with 207 seats.
