Days after a tragic stampede during Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) IPL victory celebration at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium claimed 11 lives and left dozens injured, two senior officials of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) have resigned, accepting moral responsibility for the incident.
In a letter addressed to the KSCA, Shankar and Jairam stated, “In light of the unforeseen and unfortunate events over the past two days, and though our involvement was minimal, we have decided to accept moral responsibility. Accordingly, we submitted our resignations from the positions of Secretary and Treasurer.”
The development comes amid mounting legal and political fallout from the stampede that took place during a felicitation event celebrating RCB’s maiden IPL title win. The Karnataka High Court, which took suo motu cognisance of the tragedy, has directed the state government to file a status report by June 10. The court also granted interim protection from arrest to KSCA officials, on the condition that they fully cooperate with the ongoing police investigation.
In a related move, Bengaluru Police arrested four individuals in connection with the incident. Among those detained was Nikhil Sosale, RCB’s head of marketing, along with three representatives of DNA Entertainment Private Limited – Sunil Mathew, Sumanth, and Kiran Kumar. The arrests were made at Kempegowda International Airport, where the four were allegedly attempting to leave the city. They have since been remanded to judicial custody for 14 days.
It may be mentioned that K. Govindaraj has been relieved of his duties as the political secretary to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah with immediate effect, according to an official notification issued by the state government.
In addition, Hemanth Nimbalkar, Karnataka’s Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence), has been transferred without a new posting, as public outrage continues to mount over the Bengaluru stampede.
