BENGALURU: The Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) stated before the Karnataka High Court, in its petition challenging the First Information Report (FIR) registered against its office bearers, that celebrating the RCB victory was, in fact, the call of the State Government as it felicitated the players at Vidhana Soudha in the presence of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar and several cabinet ministers with all the secretariat and police higher-ups being present.
The KSCA contended that the KSCA and M/s DNA met the Chief Minister and sought his support and blessings for the event and a program was organised on the steps of Vidhana Soudha. The Chief Secretary was guiding the event and the Government supported the event. The management of the gates of the Chinnaswamy stadium is the responsibility of RCB franchise, M/s DNA, who executes under the direction of the police, the KSCA claimed.
The KSCA further stated that the incident was an accident due to sudden rush and surge and no intention of motive can be attributed, particularly to the petitioners, because the gate management and crowd management was not the responsibility of KSCA and it was of RCB, the organiser and the police.
The KSCA Managing Committee only handles the venue of Chinnaswamy Stadium on rentals and it controls the cricket in Karnataka. It does not deal with the audience and spectators or fans.
The order of suspension of police officers clearly blames the failure of the police department and, in turn, the police cannot victimise the petitioners for none of their faults. Now, the very complainant is suspended for dereliction of duties. However, the Chief Minister has issued a dictum for the arrest of the petitioners which is not their domain, the KSCA stated in its petition.
“There is absolutely no wrong that can be attributed to the petitioner committee or its office bearers as they stand aloof of any liabilities against the entire unfortunate incident. Despite having shown gratitude by extending independent compensation from its side, the KSCA and its office bearers are put to undeserved misery by way of naming them as accused of the offences”, the KSCA narrated in the petition.
Meanwhile, Justice SR Krishna Kumar passed the interim order restraining the city police from taking coercive action against three office bearers of the KSCA in connection with the FIR registered against them over 11 deaths owing to the stampede at Chinnaswamy stadium. However, the court imposed the conditions that the interim order is subjected to the conditions that they should cooperate with the investigation or inquiry and should not leave the jurisdiction of the court. The court also issued notice to the city police.
This was after hearing the petition filed by the Managing Committee of KSCA, including the three accused office bearers of KSCA, questioning the legality of the FIR registered against them by the Cubbon Park police on the ground that M/s DNA and KSCA had not properly organised the event, resulting in stampede.
The accused are Raghuram Bhat, president, A Shankar, secretary and ES Jairam, treasurer of the KSCA. Their counsel argued that multiple FIRs have been registered on the same incident which is not permissible in law and hence all further proceedings are illegal, arbitrary and liable to be quashed.
Further hearing was adjourned to June 16.