Bengaluru Stampede: Police Officers Acted As 'Servants Of RCB', Karnataka Govt Tells High Court

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government on Thursday defended its decision to suspend IPS officer Vikash Kumar over the horrific stampede outside Chinnaswamy Stadium on June 4, telling the High Court that senior police officers acted like “servants of RCB”.

Advocate General Shashi Kiran Shetty, who appeared for the state, argued that the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) order — revoking the suspension of three IPS officers, including Vikash Kumar — exceeded its jurisdiction and should be stayed, reported LiveLaw.

Shetty told the court that the suspension of Vikash and other IPS officers had been approved by the Union government, citing dereliction of duty. The suspension order was issued on June 5, a day after 11 young lives were lost and many more injured in the rush to see Virat Kohli and other cricketers of Royal Challengers Bengaluru, who lifted the IPL trophy for the first time.

CAT held RCB prima facie responsible for the stampede after lakhs had gathered to try and get entry into Chinnaswamy Stadium where the RCB team was to be felicitated.

RCB and state government both moved the high court against CAT’s decisions.

“Even before the toss of the final match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Punjab Kings, an application was given to the concerned police officers by RCB about their plans of celebrating victory, in case they win the match. Police officers acted as servants of the RCB,” the state counsel said in court.

“The officers started making security arrangements without questioning who had permitted the event,” the counsel said.

The government further said it was impossible to manage the huge crowd in just 12 hours’ notice and questioned the officer’s actions. “What was the officer doing? Did he take any steps? Instead of issuing prohibitory orders under the Police Act, they went ahead with bandobast for the celebration,” the state submitted.

The Congress-led Karnataka government directly blamed RCB for the stampede, citing multiple lapses, including a public video appeal by Kohli, which it said attracted an overwhelming crowd even though police had denied permission for the event.

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