Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court on Friday (June 6) granted interim protection from arrest to the officials of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) in a case registered in connection with the death of 11 persons in a stampede outside Chinnaswamy stadium.
The KSCA officials – president Raghuram Bhat, secretary A Shankar and Treasurer ES Jairam – moved the High Court for quashing of the First Information Report (FIR) registered in connection with the death of 11 persons who lost their lives outside the Chinnaswamy stadium where an event was organised to celebrate the first title victory of Royal Challenger Bangalore (RCB) in the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) final.
Eleven persons lost their lives and 56 were injured in the stampede incident outside the Chinnaswamy stadium on Wednesday, as over 2.5 lakh people from the city as well as the other parts of the state thronged to the stadium to participate in the RCB team’s IPL victory celebrations.
Justice SR Krishna Kumar granted interim relief to the KSCA officials till the next hearing and asked them to cooperate with the probe.
Advocate General Shashi Kiran, appearing for the State of Karnataka, urged the court to allow the investigation to go on and submitted that the police will not be arresting any person as of now.
The counsel representing the petitioners pointed out that RCB’s marketing head has been arrested and that the state chief minister himself had said that there would be arrests in the case, Bar and Bench reported.
The KSCA has said that naming of KSCA management and others in the First Information Report (FIR) was result of a kneejerk reaction at the instance of the state government which is struggling hard to take the lashes of media and severe criticism.
The plea of the KSCA officials seeking quashing of the FIR would be further heard on June 16.
RCB’s marketing head Nikhil Sosale has also moved the High Court challenging his arrest in the case and his plea would be heard on June 9.
A division bench of the High Court comprising Acting Chief Justice VK Rao and Justice CM Joshi on Thursday took suo motu cognisance of the Wednesday stampede incident and directed the Karnataka government to file a detailed status report by by June 10, when the matter would be heard next. The bench, which also issued a notice to the state government, said that the court is taking cognisance of the incident to ascertain the cause of tragedy and how to prevent such tragedies in future.
