Kolkata: Darkness descended midway through former Pakistani cricketer Imran Khan's interaction with the media at a venue during the Kolkata Literary Meet on Monday but the organisers of the programme said it was a deliberate act to fend off media chaos.
"Power was switched off because there was too much chaos in the auditorium", Secretary of the Publishers and Booksellers Guild, the organisers of the literary meet, Tridib Chatterjee, told reporters after the abrupt end of the programme.
Hundreds of listeners at the auditorium at Milan Mela, where the book fair is being held, were listening to Khan, president of Tehrik-e-Insaff, with rapt attention when it suddenly plunged into darkness, leaving the cricketing legend non-plussed.
He had to stop abruptly while answering a query. Asked why this was done, which tarnished the image of Kolkata before a celebrity like Imran Khan, Chatterjee said "power was switched off because there was too much chaos in the auditorium".
Imran Khan was escorted out of the auditorium by securitymen.
Surprisingly enough, power was restored as soon as Khan left.
In support of his contention, Chatterjee tried to explain that Imran Khan arrived 45 minutes late and the organisers had to resort to such an act to facilitate start of the next programme which was getting delayed.
Earlier, when Khan arrived at the auditorium, there was a jostle among photo-journalists to grab vantage positions to shoot.
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