BENGALURU: The Indian Police Foundation has urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to restore the five police officers, including Bengaluru City Police Commissioner B Dayananda, who were suspended following the stampede incident at Chinnaswamy Stadium.
In a letter to the Chief Minister on Monday, the foundation, a multi-disciplinary think tank dedicated to work for police reform and the improvement of policing through research, capacity building and policy advocacy, stated that taking action without establishing individual responsibility amounts to scapegoating and demoralising the police force.
The suspensions, issued before a detailed investigation was completed, have raised serious concerns within the professional policing community across the country.
“Disciplinary action, if warranted, should follow from the findings and not precede them,” the letter stated.
The letter further added that, large public events, especially those organised at short notice, require coordinated planning among multiple civic, administrative, and political agencies. Isolating the police for punitive action while other stakeholders escape scrutiny, distorts the reality of shared responsibility and misses the opportunity to draw comprehensive lessons for the future.
The letter also offered to support the government by conducting a post-incident review and analysis. This would be a non-adversarial, independent exercise not intended for fault-finding but focused on identifying systemic gaps, good practices, and actionable lessons to guide police operations and training.