A day after five senior police officers including the Bengaluru police commissioner got suspended citing “dereliction of duty” following the Chinnaswamy stadium stampede that claimed 11 lives, the Karnataka government on Friday shunted out the Intelligence chief ADGP Hemanth Nimbalkar, while relieving the MLC K. Govindaraju from the post of CM’s political secretary with immediate effect.
While Nimbalkar had taken over as state intelligence chief in September 2024, Govindaraju, also the president of Karnataka Olympic Association, had been appointed as CM’s political secretary in June 2023.
While Nimbalkar would continue as commissioner of the Department of Information and Public Relations, ADGP and principal secretary to the government S. Ravi succeeded Nimbalkar.
The move comes following strong criticism from both cabinet ministers and the opposition parties for organising the RCB felicitation at the Vidhana Soudha.
The BJP and JDS which held a joint press meet on Friday, accused the state government of unfairly targeting the police officers despite the latter’s advice against holding the two events in haste.
Earlier in the day, BJP state president B.Y. Vijayendra had questioned the chief minister for choosing to keep mum over the intelligence failure.
“The CM has suspended the commissioner and other senior police officers. But why has he not taken action against intelligence department officers? Is it because the department reports directly to the CM and suspending them would be an admission of guilt by the CM? But the CM has already admitted that there was intelligence failure by saying they did not expect 2-3 lakh people to turn up for the event,” Vijayendra had taunted.
Union minister H.D. Kumaraswamy had accused Govindraju of “misleading” the chief minister and forcing him to instruct the commissioner to comply and provide security for the felicitation ceremony of RCB players on the grand steps of the Vidhana Soudha.
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“CM had refused to attend the KSCA event at the Stadium and asked if he should attend an event that was being funded by a liquor company. He insisted on having the event at Vidhana Soudha. On June 4, Govindaraju called the police commissioner at 7:30 am seeking bandobast in front of Vidhana Soudha. But the commissioner said it was not possible as cops had not slept the whole night due to bandobast during the victory celebrations (on June 3)," said HDK.
He also advised against holding two events. "But Govindraju went to the CM and summoned the Commissioner to the CM’s residence and Siddaramaiah asked the cops to follow his orders. The police were forced to deploy additional police at Vidhana Soudha. So, they deployed only a smaller contingent of KSRP constables at the stadium. No prior video conference or planning meeting was held by the police,” Kumaraswamy had alleged.
Kumaraswamy also narrated how the CM and Dy CM were not on the same page over the felicitations.
“On June 4, deputy chief minister D.K. Shivakumar was in Kanakapura to attend a court proceeding, when he was informed by his media secretary about the RCB team being felicitated at Vidhana Soudha. Shivakumar, who was in the dark about the Vidhana Soudha event went straight to HAL airport and felicitated the RCB team and handed over an RCB flag and a Kannada flag. He escorted the RCB team to the Taj hotel and dialled Home Minister to inquire about the Vidhana Soudha event. Now you know how they run the government,” he mocked.
“It was a prestige battle between the CM and DCM. They suspended the police officers to escape from High Court rap when the (suo motu) case came up for hearing,” alleged Kumaraswamy.
