BENGALURU: The state government on Thursday submitted its response in a sealed cover to the Karnataka High Court to nine questions posed by it while initiating the suo motu public interest litigation over the stampede that claimed 11 lives at M Chinnaswamy stadium during the RCB victory celebrations.
Advocate General (AG) K Shashikiran Shetty submitted the sealed cover before a division bench of acting Chief Justice V Kameswar Rao and Justice C M Joshi. Taking it on record before adjourning further proceedings to Tuesday, the high court orally made it clear that the magisterial probe and the commission of inquiry are not binding on the court’s ongoing proceedings and it has its own understanding and will proceed on that basis.
The court said it doesn’t understand why two probes -- magisterial and commission of inquiry -- were ordered.
The AG submitted that the magisterial probe concerns culpable homicide and lapses on the part of the concerned and the commission is for fact-finding. The court also directed the state to keep all original documents and communications between the intra-department and all stakeholders, both online and offline, including WhatsApp messages, if any, relating to the event in the safe custody of the chief secretary.
The AG submitted that the report of the magisterial probe will come in a week and the commission of inquiry has also published a notification to receive information from the public. If the report is made public, it may prejudice the entire case.