The Karnataka High Court has directed the state government to share its report on the June 4 stampede outside Bengaluru’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium with the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and DNA Entertainment Networks. This tragic incident occurred during RCB’s victory parade the day after they won their first Indian Premier League (IPL) trophy.
A bench of judges, comprising Acting Chief Justice V Kameswar Rao and Justice C M Joshi, passed this order while hearing a case related to the stampede that claimed 11 lives and many injuries. The court refused to accept the state government’s plea to keep the report confidential. The reasons given by the government didn’t hold water under the existing laws.
The court didn’t buy the state’s argument that sharing the report would jeopardise the investigations by a judicial commission and a magistrate. The judges felt this was just a guess. They said high-level investigations by retired judges and All-India Service officers would remain fair and unbiased.
The court pointed out that it was unfair to keep the report from RCB, KSCA and DNA Entertainment while asking them to cooperate with the investigation. The judges said these parties could help figure out what happened, what caused it and if the tragedy could have been prevented.
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The court said if the report is shared with these parties, they can help the court understand what happened, what were the factors involved and if the tragedy could have been avoided.
This comes after RCB filed a petition against the Central Administrative Tribunal’s (CAT) first statement which held RCB responsible for the stampede. The tribunal had criticised RCB for having the victory parade just a day after their IPL win on May 3 which didn’t give the authorities much time to set up crowd control and safety.
