The Karnataka government on Thursday formed a one-man judicial commission to investigate the stampede at the M Chinnaswamy stadium that killed 11, and suspended several police officers including Bengaluru City Police Commissioner B Dayananda for the lapses leading to the tragedy.
The one-man judicial commission will be headed by retired Karnataka High Court judge Justice Michael D’ Cunha, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told a news conference. The commission is tasked with investigating the lapses in planning, coordination and crowd management during the incident and will submit its report in a month.
The decision followed discussions in the cabinet meeting chaired by the CM on Thursday evening.
Apart from Dayananda, the additional police commissioner who was in charge of security arrangements at the stadium, the deputy commissioner of police (central), the assistant commissioner of police of the relevant police jurisdiction, and the sub-inspector and the station house officer of Cubbon Park station were suspended.
“Representatives of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), Karnataka State Cricket Association and (the event management company) DNA (Entertainment) will be arrested,” he said.
The reason for their arrest is that prima facie the organisers acted irresponsibly. “This is the first time I have seen such a stampede since I became an MLA,” he said, adding that the incident had hurt the government.
On the FIR registered earlier in the day regarding the incident, Siddaramaiah said the case filed with the police would be handed over to CID for investigation.
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The magisterial probe has also started. “After we discussed it in the cabinet, we understood that it was a major tragedy after we collected information from senior officials and ministers,” he said.
On Wednesday, 11 people died after a massive crowd gathered in front of Vidhana Soudha and the stadium where events were organised to felicitate the RCB cricket team, which won its maiden Indian Premier League title.
