Gurgaon : Four people, including a top official of the company organising the Metallica concert, were arrested early Saturday on charges of cheating and breach of trust, as the event was postponed at the last moment, police said.
DNA Networks, the event management company organising the concert, had Friday postponed the event for Saturday.
Rajesh, the general manager of DNA Networks, was arrested along with team members Umesh, Ashok Singh and Savio Faleio, Gurgaon’s Sector 29 Station House Officer Jagdish Prasad said.
They were arrested under section 406 (breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code, Prasad said.
Over 25,000 people had gathered at the Leisure Valley Park here in Sector 29 to watch the concert, the opener for the ‘F1 Rocks’ series of performances for the Formula 1 event.
The four member-band, which arrived here Friday and addressed the media, are known for albums like the 1986 release “Master of Puppets” and the 1991 album “Metallica”, which reportedly sold over 15 million copies in the US and 22 million copies worldwide. Their last release was “Death Magnetic” in 2008.
“As soon as the organisers announced that the show has been postponed, the crowd went berserk… people started pushing each other, broke barricades, started shouting and throwing water bottles,” Pankaj Kaushik, who waited for three hours for the show to begin, told IANS.
The venue was vandalised by upset fans, some of whom even ran around the ground shirt-less as a mark of rebellion. They threw bottles at the security personnel, who formed a human chain on the stage.
Technical equipment was destroyed as angry fans threw chairs at the LED wall.
“People have come from across various countries – Malaysia, China, Nepal, Indonesia, Singapore… but everybody is feeling robbed,” said Anurag Sharma, another disappointed fan.
Metallica was due to stage its first ever performance in India.
Metallica is slated to perform in Bangalore Sunday.
IANS
