The explosive revelations have been made by the Delhi and District Cricket Association’s high court-appointed administrator, Justice Vikramajit Sen. Justice Sen told the Indian Express that police and municipality indulged in “arm-twisting” methods to obtain extra passes for the series opener, which was also Ashish Nehra’s last international game.

Justice Sen shared that SDMC locked up the kitchen where players’ dinner was being prepared for two hours as they “didn’t get enough passes”. Along with that, Delhi Police didn’t allow catering trucks to enter the stadium and only issued 60 parking passes, which is less than the usual number (250) as they were not happy with the number of passes given. The 66-year-old justice termed their behaviour “as a case of obstruction.”

It didn’t stop there, Justice Sen also claims that CCTV footage shows police allowing multiple people enter the stadium without tickets, leading to the stadium getting filled beyond capacity.

“(Government departments) must realise that they have a job to do and don’t have greater rights than other citizens and if citizens of Delhi are not allowed passes why they should take it and in enormous numbers. The tactics they employ are most unfortunate and somebody has to wake up and say this is not permissible,” he said.

According to Justice Sen, the police was so apathetic that they even denied entry to 71-year-old former India skipper Bishan Singh Bedi.

“Even Bedi was not allowed through the gate, but these fellows (police) just opened the gate for unauthorised people. Bedi, who was to felicitate Nehra, was not allowed in by the police. He is such an aged person and if he was standing there, what do you do? We got to know when somebody told us… when we went rushing there, we saw this poor gentleman standing outside.”

Feature image: AFP