Countdown to Bengaluru stampede tragedy: State, RCB insisted on own events, security was stretched thin

According to a senior police officer, the RCB’s unilateral decision of holding a Victory Parade Wednesday in Bengaluru, without obtaining police permission as mandated under the Karnataka Police Act for events requiring police security, and the decision of the state government at the eleventh hour to hold its own event to bask in the glory of the RCB played a key role in the tragedy involving frenzied fans.

“We were stretched thin in terms of resources. We were virtually handling four events simultaneously on that day – the arrival of the RCB team at the airport, their safe transport to the team hotel, to the government felicitation ceremony and finally to the RCB event at the Chinnaswamy Stadium,” the officer said.

The entire Bengaluru police, which had been working until 3 am the previous night due to the IPL finals, were forced to provide a security blanket across the city for the second day, especially for the government event at the Vidhana Soudha and the RCB event at Chinnaswamy Stadium located a kilometre away.

An FIR registered by the Bengaluru police Thursday against RCB, the Karnataka State Cricket Association, the custodians of the stadium, and a private event management firm suggests that the virtual overlap of the RCB event and the government event between 3 pm and 5 pm on June 4, along with a free invite given to RCB fans, played a key role in the stampede.

An aerial view of M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Wednesday. (PTI)

An analysis of RCB posts on social media shows that at 7.01 am on June 4, the RCB put out a message on Instagram announcing a Victory Parade for its team.

The Victory Parade from the Vidhana Soudha to the Chinnaswamy Stadium was announced by ‘royalchallengers.bengaluru’ on Instagram despite the Bengaluru police rejecting, according to the FIR, a proposal for a parade made the previous night by KSCA CEO Shubendu Ghosh due to possibility of the gathering of a large crowd.

By 9 am, word had spread about the Victory Parade via social media, influencers and mainstream media, says the suo motu police complaint .

Even as the Bengaluru city police were preparing to deploy forces to deal with the situation arising of the “unilateral decision” of the RCB to hold the parade, police were informed by the state government of a plan to felicitate RCB players on the portals of the Vidhana Soudha.

By 10.30 am, a media communique was issued on behalf of RCB and the state government of RCB’s felicitation by Chief Minister Siddaramiah and others in the government, followed by a parade to the stadium for RCB fans.

“The Deputy Chief Minister ( D K Shivakumar) took the initiative for the felicitation. He went to the airport to receive the team, attended the government event and the stadium event,” police sources said.

JDS leader and Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy targeted Shivakumar. “Why hold two separate events? One programme, well-organised with proper preparation, would have been enough. There should have been appropriate security and caution. Instead, everything was rushed simply to glorify himself. As a result of this recklessness, sports fans lost their lives,” Kumaraswamy said in New Delhi Wednesday.

The stampede broke out around 4 pm when more than 15 people, including a woman, fell on the ground in the rush of the crowd outside Gate 3 of the stadium. (Express photo by Jithendra M)

On Thursday, an emotional Shivakumar said that he had seen the young who died in the stampede. “No family can digest such an incident,” he said.

He said he did not have plans to attend the event despite an invitation by the KSCA. “I took the KSCA president and other members of the management in my car and we closed the programme in 10 minutes. I was not aware of the deaths until I reached the stadium… I went there and told them not to hold any function,” he said.

According to a source in the government, Bengaluru city police commissioner B Dayananda had informed the Chief Minister that they would not be able to hold the event at a short notice. However, another “influential politician”, who is also associated with the sports fraternity, convinced the Chief Minister that the event would result in “positive vibes”, the source said.

On Wednesday, 11 people including women died and 47 others were injured as RCB fans stampeded into Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Cricket Stadium to catch a glimpse of the winners. (Express Photo by Jithendra M)

The issue was discussed with new DGP M A Saleem and directions were given to the Bengaluru police to organise the event. The city police were of the opinion that celebrations must be held on Sunday which would give them some time to arrange security.

“We had only around three hours to arrange security at four to five places. Since the cricket stadium security is handled by RCB and KSCA, the concentration of the police was on the government event at Vidhana Soudha which went off peacefully,” police sources said.

A senior police officer said that one of the reasons cited by RCB for holding the Victory Parade Wednesday itself was the fact that the team’s foreign players were scheduled to depart for their homes and a full felicitation would not have been possible later in the week.

“The event (at the stadium) was organised on behalf of RCB by DNA Event Management. KSCA is in charge of the stadium. All the security is provided by them in the stadium. All the deaths happened at the entry gates of the stadium. The problem is that 33,000 people were expected, which is the capacity of the stadium, but 2.5 lakh people turned up,” state Advocate General K M Shashikiran Shetty told the High Court Thursday.

A statement from the RCB after the tragedy stated: “Immediately upon being made aware of the situation, we promptly amended our programme, and followed the guidance and advice of the local administration.”

– With Kiran Parashar and Sanath Prasad