Nikhil Sosale, RCB’s Head of Marketing and Revenue, has been arrested by the Bengaluru Police from the Kempegowda International Airport. Incidentally, employees belonging to DNA Entertainment Network – Kiran Kumar (Senior Event Manager) and Sunil Mathew (Vice President – Business Affairs), have also been detained by the cops.
This is in backdrop of an FIR that was registered against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, event management firm DNA entertainment networks, Karnataka State Cricket Association and others in relation to the stampede that took place near the Chinnaswamy Stadium, resulting in 11 deaths and 56 suffering injuries.
In addition to it, Bengaluru City Police Commissioner B Dayanand, alongside a few other high-ranking officials have been suspended by Siddaramiah’s cabinet. The Chief Minister of Karnataka noted: “The cabinet has also decided to immediately suspend the Circle Police Inspector of the Cubbon Park Police station A K Girish and Assistant Commissioner of Police C Balakrishna, Deputy Commissioner of Police of central division Shekhar H Tekkannavar, Additional Commissioner of Police Vikash Kumar Vikash, who is in charge of the stadium, and Commissioner of Police Bengaluru city Dayananda.”
Earlier, the Karnataka High Court had taken Suo motu cognizance of the stampede and a notice was issued to the Government of Karnataka. The bench asked the State government to reply to nine questions to ascertain the reasons behind the stampede. The Division Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice V Kameshwar Rao and Justice CM Joshi also observed that a status report has been filed by the Advocate General.
Meanwhile, Advocate-General Shashi Kiran Shetty, appearing for the state, noted that the security measures in and around the Chinnaswamy were made on the basis of the capacity of the stadium. Incidentally, the capacity of the stadium is 34,600. The action plan was also made on the framework of the number of police personnel employed during each and every cricket match hosted by the stadium over the past 18 years.
The A-G then observed that approximately 2.5 lakh people had assembled against the backdrop of the stadium’s capacity being 34,600. The police had used 1600 personnel instead of 800 for any other cricket match.
The Division Bench then further queried the government by asking whether there was a Standard operating procedure (SOP) to control such an event. On his part, the A-G acknowledged that the government has no SOP so far to regulate events of such massive scale. However, he assured that the government will come out with one as soon as possible.
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