Bengaluru Stampede: Those Arrested Include Top RCB Official, Three From Event Management Company
New Delhi: Following the stampede in Bengaluru which led to the death of 11 people, the city police arrested a top official of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) franchise and three persons from the event management company who had organised the victory celebrations after the team had won the Indian Premier League (IPL).
The arrests were made after Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah suspended city police commissioner B. Dayananda and directed police to arrest RCB and the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) for the stampede, reported The Hindu.
Among those arrested were Nikhil Sosale, the head of marketing and revenue, RCB at Diageo India Pvt. Ltd.. He was reportedly arrested from Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) as he was flying out to Mumbai.
The Bengaluru police have also arrested three from DNA Entertainment Pvt. Ltd..
Earlier, the Cubbon Park Police had registered a suo motu FIR against RCB, KSCA officials and DNA Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. who had been booked for culpable homicide, illegal assembly among other serious charges for the stampede.
The high court had also taken suo motu cognisance of the incident and issued notice to the state government. It also directed it to file a status report providing information on, among other things, what steps were taken to regulate the crowd prior to the incident and whether it had formulated guidelines on managing large crowds at sports and celebratory events.
The Karnataka government announced an ex gratia payment of Rs 10 lakh to the kin of the deceased. The RCB has also announced a matching compensation to the deceased’s families.
The stampede occurred outside the Chinnaswamy stadium on Wednesday (June 4) afternoon amid a celebration of the RCB’s maiden Indian Premier League trophy a day earlier in Ahmedabad.
Prior to the tragedy, the victorious team had arrived at the stadium from the state legislature nearby, where it was felicitated by Siddaramaiah and his deputy D.K. Shivakumar. At the time of the stampede it was reportedly present inside the stadium.
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