Bengaluru: Two days after a deadly stampede that took place during Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) IPL 2025 victory parade near Chhinaswamy Stadium on Wednesday, the Siddaramaiah-led Karnataka government sacked another official. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's political secretary K Govindaraj was sacked and the head of the information department, Hemant Nimbalkar, was transferred by the state government, reported NDTV.
The development came a day after top police officers, including the police commissioner of Bengaluru city and his deputy, with immediate effect. On Thursday, addressing a press briefing, Siddaramaiah, said, “B Dayanand, Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru City; Vikas Kumar, Additional Commissioner of Police, West Division; Shekhar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central Division); Balakrishna, ACP, Cubbon Park Division and Girish, Inspector, Cubbon Park Police Station along with Station House Master, Station House Office and Cricket Stadium in Charge have been suspended immediately.”
The FIR filed at Cubbon Park Police Station held the RCB franchise, DNA (event manager), KSCA management, and others responsible for gross negligence in crowd control.
Earlier in the day, RCB’s marketing head Nikhil Sosale was arrested by the police in connection with the stampede, in which 11 people lost their lives, while 47 others were injured.
Sosale approached the Karnataka High Court to challenge his arrest. According to reports, Sosale stated that the arrest was made based only on the directive of the Chief Minister before the police had even conducted a preliminary inquiry.
"It is clear from the timing of the Petitioner's arrest, which is evidently the result of an oral directive of the Hon'ble Chief Minister to arrest various RCB officials - that too, in the absence of any investigation whatsoever - that the Petitioner's arrest is motivated and an attempt to shift the blame of the tragedy to RCSPL and its officials," Sosale's petition states.
