Kolkata, Dec. 16 -- Two days after a widespread spectator rampage marred a marquee football event featuring Argentine legend Lionel Messi at the Salt Lake Stadium, state Sports minister Aroop Biswas resigned from his post, saying he was stepping down to ensure an "unbiased investigation".
The resignation came on a day, Mamata Banerjee's government show-caused the DGP and other senior officers, and suspended a deputy commissioner.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has accepted his resignation and will look after the sports department until the investigation concludes.
The Chief Minister's office (CMO) on Tuesday issued a statement confirming the acceptance of his resignation.
Biswas's handwritten letter to the Chief Minister urged her to relieve him of the responsibility to ensure an impartial probe into the incident. Biswas's resignation coincided with the government announcing its decision to issue show cause notices to top police officers of the state, including director general of police (DGP) Rajeev Kumar, and suspending Bidhannagar deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Aneesh Sarkar.
"Following the Salt Lake Stadium incident, you have already formed a probe committee. I request you to relieve me for the sake of unbiased investigation," reads the letter written to the Chief Minister in the vernacular language.
The statement issued by the CMO said: "As per the enclosed letter, the Chief Minister appreciates the sentiment and intention of the Sports Minister to offer a relief from the Sports department for the sake of impartial enquiry into the Salt Lake Stadium incident on December 13." The statement also confirmed that Chief Minister Banerjee will look after the Sports department "for the time being".
Meanwhile, as per the recommendations of the probe committee, formed by the Chief Minister and headed by retired Justice Ashim Kumar Roy, the state constituted an SIT 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 event.
However, the actions taken by the state government triggered a political slugfest with the Trinamool Congress stating that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has performed her "Raj Dharma" with her government dealing with the situation with an iron hand, while the BJP calling Biswas's resignation a "hogwash".
BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari said the move was made to divert attention from the PILs which the Calcutta High Court is likely to hear later this week.
The development came after soccer icon Lionel Messi's Kolkata visit descended into chaos, allegedly due to crowd mismanagement and security lapses. As the event got underway, spectators breached security barriers and vandalism was reported.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.