The High Court received the Karnataka government’s report on the stampede in Bengaluru that killed eleven people. However, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) has been held accountable for the tragedy by the Congress administration. They submitted that the crowd was invited ‘unilaterally’ and ‘without consultation or permission’ from the local authorities, to Chinnaswamy Stadium for a victory parade.
The Karnataka High Court ordered the report to be made public and rejected the state government’s request to maintain its confidentially, concluding that there were no legitimate reasons to agree to their appeal. According to the report, on 3rd June when the team eventually managed to clinch the IPL trophy after 18 years, its management called the police and told them about a potential victory parade.
“This was in the nature of an intimation, not a requisition for permission as required under the law,” it insisted and added that permissions of this kind must be secured at least seven days prior to the event. It aruged that the applicant or organizer failed to submit any applications to the licensing authority in the required formats. Therefore, the license-granting authority was unable to grant them a favourable consideration in the absence of the information that was needed in the formats specified.
The report read, “Accordingly, the PI of the Cubbon Park Police Station did not grant the permission to the request made by KSCA on 03.06.2025 at around 6.30 pm, due to a lack of information regarding the expected approximate gathering, arrangements made, possible bottlenecks, and the like, for both possible outcomes of the final match, i.e., whether RCB won or lost.”
Report cites RCB’s social media posts
According to the report, at 7:01 am the following day, RCB shared a picture on its official social media accounts “informing that there is free entry for people and inviting the public to participate in the Victory Parade, which would commence at Vidhana Soudha and conclude at Chinnaswamy Stadium” without first consulting the police.
The report then referred to similar posts that the team had shared on social media. It asserted, “Subsequently, on 04.06.2025, at 8:55 am, the RCB shared a video clip of Virat Kohli, a prominent player of the RCB team, onteam’s official handle @Rcbtweets on X, in which he stated that the team intended to celebrate this victory with the people of Bengaluru city and RCB fans on 04.06.2025 in Bengaluru.”
It further conveyed, “Thereafter, RCB made one more post at 3:14 p.m on 04.06.2024, announcing a Victory Parade to be held from Vidhana Soudha to Chinnaswamy Stadium from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM, stating that this victory parade would be followed by celebrations at Chinnaswamy Stadium. This post mentioned, for the first and only time, that free passes (limited entry) were available on shop.royalchallengers.com, and until this point, there had been no information regarding the disbursement of passes, implying that the event was open to all based on RCB’s prior posts.”
The report mentioned that the posts from the RCB handles had a total of 44 lakh views and attracted an extensive amount of traction online. It stressed, “This led to a public gathering of immense proportions, exceeding 3,00,000, individuals. One basis for estimating the crowd size is the BMRCL ridership numbers for 04.06.2025, which transported around 9.66 lakh persons on that date (with the average ridership on regular days being around 6 lakh persons per day). Therefore, including those who travelled on foot, used public transport, and private means on 04.06.2025, the estimated gathering would be well beyond 3,00,000, individuals.”
Large crowds flooded the streets
According to the report, a significant number of people had gathered along the roads from HAL Airport, the team’s landing location, to Taj West End which was their destination, a distance of around 14 kilometres, besides the crowd that had assembled in and around the Chinnaswamy Stadium. “This created a need for extensive deployment of police personnel en route to manage such crowds and prevent any mishaps,” it pointed out.
The report stated that netizens shared visuals of this spontaneous crowding which intensified the mood and attracted more individuals to the stadium and on the way there. It contended, “This impromptu gathering of crowds on the roads necessitated the urgent deployment of large numbers of police personnel along the routes, in addition to those required at the stadium and surrounding areas. This situation arose due to a lack of proper planning by the Organisers and the failure to provide the necessary information in advance to the concerned authorities.”
The report informed that there was an unexpected spike in the number of persons near Chinnaswamy Stadium on 4th June at approximately 3 pm. It highlighted, “Around 3,00,000 individuals gathered in this limited space, far exceeding the stadium’s capacity of merely 35,000. Such a crowd concentrated at the entry gates of the stadium following posts made by the RCB/organisers on their official handles stating that entry to the event would be free for all.”
The report accused that the situation exacerbated when the organisers, RCB, DNA and KSCA in charge of gate control failed to open the gates in a timely manner and in an uncoordinated manner, causing agitated throngs to line up at the gates. “This prompted the crowd to force their way into the stadium by breaking open Gate Nos. 1, 2, and 21, due to complete mismanagement by the organisers,” it added.
Stadium gates 02, 2A, 6, 7, 15, 17, 18, 20, and 21 “experienced sporadic stampedes,” based on the report. Furthermore, it lauded the authorities and claimed, “In every instance mentioned, the police personnel at and around the gates responded immediately and effectively to regain control and deescalate the situation.”
Justification for not cancelling the celebrations
A sudden closure of the stadium’s victory celebrations “could potentially incite violence among the gathered crowd and adversely affect overall law and order across the city,” according to the report and hence the event was not stopped. It alleged that “a measured response was taken by curtailing the duration of the function. Instead of complete termination, a measured approach was adopted by allowing the event to proceed with significantly curtailed duration and enhanced monitoring.”
The report indicated that the decision was made after considering all factors involved. It stated, “This tactical decision considered the evolving ground situation, crowd psychology, the massive scale of gathering, and the information asymmetry amongst the assembled masses.”
The report further argued, “The risk of large-scale rioting both within the stadium premises and throughout Bengaluru necessitated this careful balancing approach, prioritizing overall public safety over immediate event cessation. It is common and known in Law & Order situations, that cancellation of anticipated events can incite the crowd tremendously and lead to widespread mob violence, as has been seen in several events were such decisions have been taken.”
CAT blames RCB
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) was previously found guilty by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) for the stampede, claiming that the event was staged without the required permits. The Karnataka government’s suspension order against senior IPS officer Vikash Kumar Vikash, who was the subjected to the disciplinary action following the incident, was also overturned by the tribunal in its ruling.
The order pronounced, “Prima facie it appears that the RCB is responsible for the gathering of about three to five lakh people. The RCB did not take the appropriate permission or consent from the Police. Suddenly, they posted on social media platforms and as a result of aforesaid information the public were gathered. Because of shortage of time on 04.06.2026, the Police was unable to do the appropriate arrangements. Sufficient time was not given to the Police.”
On 24th June, the tribunal’s Bengaluru bench which included administrative member Santhosh Mehra and Justice B K Shrivastava, reserved its decision.
DCP’s letter exposes Congress government
Despite the government’s report about the instance, an official letter has already exposed how the Congress governemnt was eager to capitalize on the success of the RCB while disregarding all the warnings.
MN Karibasavana Gowda, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) for Vidhana Soudha, had protested against holding the RCB felicitation ceremony on the grand staircase of Karnataka Vidhan Soudha. He had brought attention to security issues, including a paucity of personnel in the security wing of Vidhan Soudha, inadequate time for preparation actions and the absence of CCTV at the crucial facility.
“As the Royal Challengers Bangalore team has a large fan following across the country, holding the felicitation at the grand steps of Vidhana Soudha may attract lakhs of cricket fans, potentially creating security challenges due to a shortage of officers/staff in the Vidhana Soudha security wing,” the official wrote in a 4th June letter.
He stated, “The event is to be held at 4:00 PM on 04.06.2025. There is a high chance that Secretariat officers/staff may bring their family members to the venue. Therefore, it is requested that orders be issued prohibiting staff from bringing families and declaring an afternoon holiday for Secretariat staff on the said date. Further, they should be instructed not to attend the event venue.”
He even highlighted, “Coordination with the Law & Order and Traffic Police departments is essential for such a large-scale event, and the current time frame seems inadequate for full preparedness. All online and offline passes for public entry to Vidhana Soudha be completely restricted on that day.”
The top cop asserted, “Organisers should be informed to make the stage available for inspection at least two hours in advance. As electrical equipment will be used at the event, a fitness certificate must be obtained from the concerned PWD (Electrical) Assistant Executive Engineer. A formal letter should be sent to them for this purpose.”
He emphasised that the government’s decision should be definitive and any harm to the heritage building Vidhan Soudha must be avoided at all costs. However, the government sought to profit off RCB’s 2025 IPL championship. For this, two events were organised. The Chinnaswamy Stadium hosted one and Karnataka Vidhan Soudha’s grand staircase hosted the other.
The event was approved by Congress to be held on 4th June, in the Legislative Assembly. A Rs 10,000 sanitation charge, a Rs 15 lakh refundable deposit and liability for any damage were demanded of the organisers.
