Chief Minister Siddaramaiah ordered the arrest of RCB executive Nikhil Sosale and the CCB police arrested him sans any investigation, submitted Sosale’s lawyer during the hearing of a petition challenging the arrest before the Karnataka High Court on Monday.
Sosale was arrested at Bengaluru airport around 4.30 am on June 6, as he was heading to Dubai, based on an FIR filed by the Cubbon park police station Inspector Girish (who is now suspended) after a stampede during the RCB victory celebration outside the Chinnaswamy Stadium claimed 11 lives and injured 56 others on June 4.
Till now, four separate petitions have been filed before the high court seeking to quash the FIR against the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), an IPL francise, and DNA Entertainment Pvt Ltd (event management company), besides Sosale’s petition challenging his arrest. The high court which heard Sosale’s petition on Monday, posted it for further hearing on Tuesday and the remaining petitions would be heard on Wednesday.
Senior counsel Sandesh J Chouta, who appeared for the petitioner, stated that the question is whether the arrest was legal or illegal as it did not happen based on any inquiry. “In our case, arrest has taken place at 4.30 am and not by Cubbon Park police but by CCB police at the airport by CM’s order,” contended Chouta submitting a sequence of events.
“No one had any mens rea in the stampede. The deputy chief minister received the RCB team at HAL airport, felicitation took place at Vidhana Soudha and no incident had happened till then. The RCB team left for the stadium, and reached the stadium along with the DCM. The event concluded soon after we learnt about the incident outside the Stadium. After the government ordered an inquiry by Bengaluru Urban deputy commissioner, the HC took suo motu cognisance of the matter on June 5, following which an FIR was registered and the government had told the investigation had been transferred to the CID,” argued Chouta.
Further, Chouta submitted that the CCB had no powers to make the arrest from 2.30 pm on June 5. “Around 9 pm on June 5, the CM took the decision to arrest the RCB, DNA and KSCA representatives, following a press meet where these decisions were conveyed to the media.
The court questioned if CM was wrong to order for an arrest when there was an FIR. Chouta said the CM could not even use the word “arrest” citing the that since 1947, the privy council had said that investigation was the discretion of investigating officer. “Such directions cannot be given by CM and it would be illegal,” added Chouta.
While Chouta argued that the arrests were made without any inquiry and were politically motivated, the court noted that the investigation had been transferred to the CID before the arrests were made, and questioned the power of the Cubbon Park police to arrest the petitioners.
Advocate General Shashi Kiran Shetty questioned the maintainability of the petition, and also mentioned that RCB had given Rs 10 lakh as compensation to the families of the deceased while highlighting the companies' valuation of Rs 1,000 crore.
The court noted that the investigation was ongoing and that the commission would determine the hierarchy of negligence.
Earlier in the day, the Royal Challengers Sports Private Limited (RCSPL) (and its CEO Rajesh V Menon), which manages the RCB franchise approached the high court seeking to quash the FIR.
In its plea, the RCSPL has stated that it had made an announcement of the proposed ‘victory parade’ and trophy celebration on the RCB social media handles on June 4 after getting an “oral” confirmation following “extensive discussions” held between officials of DNA KSCA and the police.
And its posts had "made it clear" that entry into the stadium was against registration on the official website and issuance of passes based on the seating capacity of the stadium. On June 4 morning, RCB officials were "orally” informed that permission for a victory parade was being withdrawn by the police and also made aware that the CM and DCM were planning to felicitate the RCB players at the Vidhana Soudha.
The plea added that it was not just the RCB players and staff who were invited to the Vidhana Soudha, but the entire public by the Chief Minister, who, in his X post had invited “all citizens to join in the celebration of this historic victory".
After the event at Vidhan Soudha the team proceeded to the stadium and during the celebration, the RCSPL management was informed of some confirmed fatalities that occurred outside the stadium in the stampede and immediately upon hearing of the stampede the celebrations at the stadium were concluded hastily, said the RCB’s plea.
The DNA Entertainments, in its petition, claimed that they had sought permission in writing to the authorities (on June 3) for an open-bus victory parade to be held on June 4, which was denied by the police. “The state government decided to felicitate the RCB players in front of the Vidhana Soudha. and the event was held with an official invitation from the Karnataka government, with the Chief Secretary personally monitoring the arrangements. While significant police force was deployed at the Soudha, the deployment was inadequate at the stadium,” said the petition.
“We had deployed 584 private personnel for the event and had made food arrangements for 2,450 people. However, only 600 food packets were picked up as there were fewer policemen around the stadium by afternoon. Despite a surge in the crowds, the stadium gates were opened only at 3.30 pm. The situation escalated following a lathi-charge by police, which triggered panic and the stampede,” contended DNA, in its plea.
The petition also argued that DNA was being unfairly targeted to deflect blame from government’s lapses, and two of their staff members had been arrested by a political order.
On Friday, the HC had directed that no coercive action be taken against the KSCA officials till the next hearing on June 16.
