Karnataka HC poses 9 questions to govt on Bengaluru stampede: ‘Who took decision to hold RCB celebration?’

Bengaluru: Who authorised the RCB victory celebration event? When and how the decision was made? Whether the organisers had obtained the necessary permissions? were among the questions for which the Karnataka government will have to file its replies to the High Court by June 10, in connection with the June 4 stampede that killed 11 people. The High Court has directed the state government to submit detailed responses to nine critical questions. A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice V Kameswar Rao and Justice C M Joshi raised the queries on Thursday while hearing a suo motu writ petition initiated by the court in the wake of the tragedy. The government has been asked to file its replies by June 10. The stampede occurred on June 4 evening in front of the Chinnaswamy stadium here, where a large number of people thronged to participate in the RCB team's IPL victory celebrations. Eleven people died and 56 were injured in the incident.

The bench also questioned the existence of a standard operating procedure (SOP) to manage gatherings of over 50,000 people for sporting events and public celebrations of this scale. The remaining questions focused on the state's preparedness and response, like: What measures were taken to control traffic around the venue? What arrangements were made to manage the crowd? What medical and emergency facilities were available on-site? Was there an estimate made of the number of attendees beforehand? Also, were the injured given prompt medical aid at the venue? If not, why?, and how much time elapsed before the injured were transported to hospitals? Political and official sources indicated that these tough questions and the judicial scrutiny may have triggered the state government's decision to suspend five senior police officers, including Bengaluru City Police Commissioner B Dayananda. The suspensions reportedly followed high-level discussions involving Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, senior ministers, legal advisor A S Ponnana, and Advocate General K M Shashikiran Shetty.