Karnataka HC Restrains Action Against KSCA Officials Amid Bengaluru Stampede Probe

On Friday, the High Court of Karnataka ordered the police not to take any coercive action towards the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) based on the First Information Report (FIR) registered in relation to the stampede, which took place outside M. Chinnaswamy stadium when RCB was celebrating its victory on June 4.

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In an interim order, justice S.R. Krishna Kumar passed the order on the petitions filed by KSCA's Managing Committee consisting of its President Raghuram Bhat, Secretary A. Shankar and Treasurer E. S. Jairam. However, the court ordered KSCA managing committee to cooperate with the investigation and not leave the jurisdiction without permission.

The KSCA has contended that the FIR's registration was illegal because the police already started the investigation by registering Unnatural Death Report (UDR) on the stampede incident. FIR against KSCA is nothing but a gross miscarriage of justice by the police when the government itself termed the stampede as "an unforeseen accident and unintended act."

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“The incident was an accident due to sudden rush and surge, and no intention or motive can be attributed particularly to KSCA’s management committee because gates and crowd atthe stadium was managed by RCSPL and not by the KSCA, which had rented out the stadium for RCB event,” it has been claimed in KSCA’s petition.

“When the order of suspension of police officers clearly blmaes the failure of the police department, the police in turn cannot victimise it”, the KSCA claimed.

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