Karnataka Blames RCB For Bengaluru Stampede, Report Mentions Virat Kohli

NDTV

17-07-2025

Bengaluru:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) invited people for a victory parade to Chinnaswamy stadium "unilaterally" and "without consultation/ permission" from city police, the Karnataka government has said in its report to the High Court on the stampede that claimed 11 lives and injured over 50 people.
The report has been made public following a direction by the Karnataka High Court. The state government had urged the court to keep the report confidential, but the court stated there were no legal grounds for such confidentiality.
'No Proper Permission Request'
The state government has said in its report that the RCB management contacted police on June 3 -- the day RCB won the IPL after an 18-year trophy drought -- and informed the cops about a possible victory parade. This was in the nature of an intimation, not a requisition for permission as required under the law," the report says. It adds that such permissions must be sought at least seven days before the event.
"In the present case, no applications in the prescribed formats were submitted to the licensing authority by the applicant/organiser. In the absence of such information required under the prescribed formats, it was not possible for the licence-granting authority to consider the request positively. 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," the report says.
'Public Invite Without Consulting Cops'
The report says RCB, without consulting the police, posted a photo at 7.01 am the next day on its official social media handles, "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".
Another post was made at 8 am, reiterating this information. "Subsequently, on 04.06.2025, at 8:55 am, the RCB shared a video clip of Mr. Virat Kohli, a prominent player of the RCB team, on RCB'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," the report says.
"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," it adds.
Massive Crowd
The posts by the RCB handles, the report said, drew immense engagement and got a combined 44 lakh views. "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," it says.
"In addition to the crowd that had gathered in and around the Chinnaswamy Stadium, a significant number of people had gathered along the roads from HAL Airport (landing place of the team) to Taj West End (destination), spanning a distance of approximately 14 kilometres to catch a glimpse of the team members. This created a need for extensive deployment of police personnel en route to manage such crowds and prevent any mishaps," the report says.
It says video clips of this spontaneous crowding were circulated on social media. This "further heightened the atmosphere, leading to even more people gathering en route and at the stadium". "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 says.
The Stampede
The report says that around 3 pm on June 4, there was a sudden surge of people near Chinnaswamy Stadium. "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," it says.
The report says that around 3.14 pm, RCB and other organisers published a post on their social media accounts 'for the first time and belatedly", clarifying that entry to the stadium would require limited pass entry. This, the report says, created "confusion, frustration, and chaos among the public who had already gathered at the stadium and were in high emotions".
"As restless crowds gathered at the gates, the situation deteriorated further when the organisers/RCB/DNA/KSCA responsible for gate management failed to open the gates at the appropriate time and in an unsynchronised manner. 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 says.
The report says stadium gates numbers 02, 2A, 6, 7, 15, 17, 18, 20, and 21 "experienced sporadic stampedes". 'In every instance mentioned, the police personnel at and around the gates responded immediately and effectively to regain control and deescalate the situation," it says.
Why March Was Not Called Off
The report says the event was not called off amid concerns that abruptly shutting down the victory celebrations at the stadium "could potentially incite violence among the gathered crowd and adversely affect overall law and order across the city". "...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," it says.
"This tactical decision considered the evolving ground situation, crowd psychology, the massive scale of gathering, and the information asymmetry amongst the assembled masses. 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 where such decisions have been taken," it adds.