Bengaluru Stampede After RCB Event: A Failure of Planning, Policing and Political Optics

A crowd of fans gather in large numbers during Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s felicitation ceremony after winning the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, in front of Vidhana Soudha, in Bengaluru on June 4, 2025.
| Photo Credit: PTI

A day after the tragic stampede outside M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, a first information report (FIR) was registered against three entities—the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) franchise, DNA Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., and the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA)—under several sections, including Section 118, which pertains to “voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means”. The FIR was filed on the complaint of the Inspector of Cubbon Park Police Station, under whose jurisdiction the stadium falls.

Eleven people died in the stampede and more than 30 were injured when a frenzied crowd of over two lakh people attempted to enter the stadium to witness RCB’s victory celebrations.

According to the FIR, the KSCA approached the Cubbon Park Police Station on June 3, the day of the IPL finals, and requested arrangements for a celebratory event on June 4, in case RCB won. The police, citing an already heavy deployment through the night of June 3 to manage post-match revelry, denied permission for the event, saying they would not be able to prepare for a massive gathering the following day adequately. The complaint states that the organisers ignored this concern, who insisted that “the event had to take place the following evening”.

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On June 4, the official X (formerly Twitter) account and website of RCB shared details of the event, allegedly without permission from the competent authority. By the time the felicitation at Vidhana Soudha ended and the team reached the stadium at 5:30 pm, lakhs of fans had gathered outside. Although the FIR states that crowd management arrangements were in place, the stadium’s capacity was only 35,000, and neither DNA nor KSCA nor RCB had a system in place to regulate entry. This led to a massive crowd build-up on the road, resulting in the stampede.

The FIR states that the organisers were responsible for the loss of lives because they conducted the event without police permission, failed to facilitate smooth entry for fans, and lured large crowds by distributing free passes at the venue.

Later on June 5, the Karnataka government suspended several senior officials, including B. Dayananda, Commissioner of Bengaluru City Police, the Additional Commissioner of Police (West), and the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central Division), among others. That night, four people, including a senior RCB official, were arrested.

Dereliction of duty

This has raised questions over whether the State government is attempting to deflect blame by targeting the organisers and police officers. Several sources revealed that the police had advised the government to delay the event to allow for proper preparations, but this advice was ignored. If there were concerns about preparedness, how was the event allowed in the first place?

“The event was permitted at the highest level but there won’t be a paper trail because if anything happens, it is a way to safeguard themselves. The Police Commissioner has been made a scapegoat in this to avoid the issue going up to the top two [the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister],” said a source close to the Congress leadership in Karnataka.

Bhaskar Rao, former Commissioner of Bengaluru City Police and now a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, said: “Despite the police saying it was premature, the government bulldozed the decision to publicly felicitate the RCB players. The government has not practised, not played, not won anything—so why did it want to hijack this? The police were up all night, and the bandobast was woefully inadequate. There were no ambulances, and water bowsers should have been used to control the crowd.”

BJP State president B.Y. Vijayendra questioned the need for such a hurried event: “Why did the government organise this within a day of the win? Why was there a felicitation at Vidhana Soudha if one was also planned at the stadium? Half the police force was deployed for VIPs—how could they also manage the stadium crowd? The State government is directly responsible. This was all for publicity.”

Eyewitnesses and the families of victims shared the view. Shivakumar B.V., father of 13-year-old Divyanshi B.S., who died after being pushed into steel barricades, said: “There were no facilities and hardly any police to manage such a large crowd.”

Manjunath B., political analyst and cricket enthusiast, told Frontline: “How can the government deny its role? The Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister wanted to be seen with the players for political mileage. This is cynical politics. If Siddaramaiah is such a cricket fan, does he even know the state of Karnataka’s Ranji team? These tragedies will recur if leaders prioritise visibility over planning.”

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V. Ravichandar, urban governance expert and former member of the Bangalore Agenda Task Force, said: “I don’t know who approved this, but a ticketed event at KSCA itself is a challenge. To make it free-entry, right after the supercharged IPL atmosphere, was asking for disaster. The stadium’s entry points are narrow—people get pushed even during regular matches. A venue like Palace Grounds would have been more appropriate. Or the originally planned open-top bus parade, which would have dispersed the crowd.”

Following the tragedy, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced a compensation of Rs.10 lakh for each victim’s family and a magisterial inquiry to determine responsibility. However, opposition leaders and political commentators criticised this as insufficient and called for a judicial inquiry under a High Court judge empowered to summon even the Chief Minister.