Karnataka govt blames RCB for stampede, tells HC victory rally tweets sparked crowd surge; no relief for arrested exec

BENGALURU: The state govt on Monday pinned the blame squarely on Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) IPL franchise for the stampede outside M Chinnaswamy Stadium on June 4 that killed 11 people and left 75 others injured. Referring to successive tweets put out by RCB on the day of the incident, Karnataka govt told the high court those tweets led to a huge public gathering in the city.

Appearing for the state govt and police, advocate general (AG) Shashikiran Shetty submitted that while the team was still in Ahmedabad after winning the IPL final, RCB put out multiple tweets, declaring they would hold a victory rally in Bengaluru — without obtaining any permission from the govt. Additional state public prosecutor B N Jagadeesh, too, raised the same point in his submission before the court.

Shetty further said the franchise had invited all and sundry in its subsequent tweets to attend the victory celebrations, with 13 crore people viewing those tweets. While arrangements were made for an estimated turnout of about 1.5 lakh people, the actual turnout was much larger primarily because of those tweets.

Earlier, senior advocate Sandesh Chouta, appearing for Nikhil Sosale, the marketing and revenue head of RCB, argued that Sosale's arrest was illegal. According to him, Sosale was arrested by Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths and not by Cubbon Park police who had registered the case. He wondered how CCB came into the picture when the govt had handed over the probe to CID.

Referring to verbal directives issued by chief minister Siddaramaiah to arrest officials of RCB and DNA Entertainment Ltd, Chouta said such orders cannot be issued since the investigation falls under the domain of the police.

In view of Chouta's claim, Justice SR Krishna Kumar questioned the state govt whether the CM had indeed issued any such instruction.

Responding to the judge's observation that "At best, the CM could say that ‘the accused would be arrested in accordance with law'," the AG said he would verify that.

Opposing grant of any interim relief to RCB, the AG further claimed that petitioners RCB made more than Rs 450 crore from IPL.

"They announced some Rs 10 lakh compensation. They did not bother to care about those who lost their lives and suffered injuries. They did not bother to visit those families," he added while pointing out that granting any interim relief is akin to granting final relief, which would seriously affect the ongoing investigation.

The hearing was adjourned to Tuesday.