Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court on Thursday (June 12) granted interim bail to Nikhil Sosale, the marketing head of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), and three others in a case registered in connection with the stampede incident near M Chinnaswamy stadium claiming 11 lives.
Justice SR Krishna Kumar, while granting bail, directed Sosale and others to surrender their passport.
The court had on Wednesday reserved its order after hearing arguments on pleas of Sosale and three others challenging their arrest in the case. While the State defended their arrest, Sosale and three others challenged the legality of their arrest in the case.
Sosale’s counsel argued that his arrest in the case is bad in law and raised questions on his early morning arrest on June 6 at Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru. The counsel submitted that mandatory documents that ought to have been given to an arrested person at the time of arrest were not provided to Sosale and that he was not arrested in view of any investigation, but on the directions of the Chief Minister.
Sosale’s counsel further argued before the court that Sosale was not arrested by either Ashok Nagar police under whose jurisdiction he stays or Cubbon Park police under whose jurisdiction Chinnaswamy stadium falls but he was arrested by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) and argued that the CCB had no authority to arrest him as the probe was transferred from the CCB to CID on June 5 and he was arrested in the early hours of June 6.
The State, on the other hand, defended before the court the arrest of Sosale and three others in the case registered in connection with the stampede incident. Advocate General Shashi Kiran Shetty, representing the State of Karnataka, submitted before the High Court that the entire event organised to celebrate the RCB’s title victory in the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) final was illegal as no permission was sought for the event and it was only intimation.
The State further submitted that RCB’s victory celebration was a private function of RCB and no permission was sought for the event and that RCB’s social media handle with the following of about 28 lakh followers posted at around 7.04 am on June 4 about the victory parade from Vidhana Soudha and at the stadium despite no permission being granted for the same.
The State further told the court that the probe into the stampede incident was transferred to CID on June 6 but it was handed over to CID only on June 6 and that before the handover of the probe, police officials were suspended and the officer who took charge later sought assistance of CCB officers to procure the accused.
It was further submitted by the State that the deputed CCB officers did only the job of procuring and that there was no unreasonable delay in giving the required documents to the arrested persons. It also submitted that the RCB’s marketing head intended to flee the country as he bought air tickets to Dubai at 10.56 pm on June 5 to fly out early morning on June 6.
