Advocate General Shashi Kiran Shetty requests the court to issue a notice to KSCA since "they are the real culprits."
Published Jun 10, 2025 | 12:10 PM ⚊ Updated Jun 10, 2025 | 1:15 PM
The Karnataka High Court. (Creative Commons)
Synopsis: Allowing the state’s request, the Karnataka High Court allowed it to submit a report on the stampede in a sealed cover on or before Thursday.
The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday, 10 June, allowed the state to file its report on the Bengaluru stampede in a sealed cover.
Allowing the state’s request, a Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice V Kameshwar Rao and Justice CM Joshi directed Advocate General Shashi Kiran Shetty to submit the report on or before Thursday, 12 June.
The court was hearing a petition it had suo motu filed on the stampede outside the M Chinnaswamy Stadium during the Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s victory celebrations on 4 June. As many as 11 youngsters were killed in the incident, which also left 56 others injured.
During Tuesday’s hearing, the state submitted that the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) was the real culprit, Live Law reported.
When the case was taken up for hearing on Tuesday, the court sought to understand the reasons that led to the tragedy, whether it could have been averted, and what remedial measures need to be taken to prevent such tragedies in the future.
Advocate General Shetty said he had not filed a reply. A judicial commission has been established, and a month has been given to submit the report. The court had earlier asked the government to file the report by Tuesday.
“Police officers are suspended. In the bail petitions pending, whatever is said here is being used by the accused there,” he submitted before the court.
To a specific question on the difficulty in submitting the report, Shetty said, I do not want to put in open court, we would be prejudged.”
“Let the report from an independent inquiry come, and it should not be that we are biased. It is a matter of only one month,” he added.
The Bench then asked the state to submit the report in a sealed cover “by day after (Thursday)”. The registrar would “ensure that reply is kept in safe custody,” the court added.
Shetty requested the court to issue a notice to KSCA also. “They are the real culprits, milords,” he stated. The court replied that KSCA was filing a status report.
The court took suo motu cognisance of the incident and ordered the filing of a writ petition on 5 June, a day after the stampede.
In a separate but related development, the high court heard RCB marketing head Nikhil Sosale’s plea challenging his arrest in the Bengaluru stampede case. His counsel argued that the Central Crime Branch lacked the authority to arrest his client.
The adjourned the case for an hour.
When the case was taken up again, Senior Advocate Sandesh J Chouta, appearing for Sosale, pointed to a Supreme Court observation in the Vihaan Kumar vs State of Haryana case that an arrest would be deemed illegal if the arresting agency lacked the authority.
Chouta argued that the CCB, though superior to the Cubbon Park Police, did not have the authority to arrest anyone.
Referring to Section 55 of the CrPC, the advocate said: “Even if you are giving the power to anyone, it has to be done in writing.” The court concurred and posted the matter for 2.30 pm further hearing.
