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Karnataka’s government has sacked CM Siddaramaiah’s political secretary and transferred the intelligence head after a stampede during IPL celebrations killed 11. The police commissioner and several officers were suspended for dereliction of duty.
Bengaluru:
In another major move a day after it suspended the Bengaluru police commissioner and some other key police officials in the wake of the stampede in the city, the Karnataka government has sacked Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s political secretary K Govindaraj and transferred the head of the intelligence department, Hemant Nimbalkar.
Sources told NDTV that Mr Govindaraj lost his job because, during a key meeting at the Chief Minister’s house on Wednesday morning – hours before the stampede – he had pushed for the celebrations of the victory of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru to be allowed despite the police commissioner refusing to agree to three events and stating that a victory parade could not be given a go-ahead.
Mr Govindaraj then persuaded the police commissioner to allow two events – at the state legislature complex, which is called the Vidhana Soudha, and the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
11 people, including a 14-year-old girl, died and 47 were injured in the stampede on Wednesday afternoon which occurred when lakhs of fans gathered to catch a glimpse of players from the Royal Challengers Bengaluru after they won the Indian Premier League. The team and the fans had waited 18 years for the moment, but the celebrations turned tragic when a huge crowd gathered outside the Chinnaswamy Stadium and a rumour of free entry reportedly triggered a stampede.
On Thursday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced the decision to immediately suspend Bengaluru Police Commissioner B Dayananda, Assistant Commissioner of Police C Balakrishna, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central Division) Shekhar H Tekkannavar, Additional Commissioner of Police Vikash Kumar Vikash and Circle Police Inspector of Cubbon Park Police station A K Girish.
“It is found that there has been, on the face of it, substantial dereliction of duty by these officers,” the suspension order had said.
After the suspensions, the opposition BJP and the Janata Dal (Secular) accused the Chief Minister of using the police officers as scapegoats to deflect responsibility from the state government. Mr Siddaramaiah, however, dismissed the allegation and accused the opposition of playing politics over the issue.
“They are speaking for the sake of politics. I don’t want to do politics in this matter. Those responsible prima facie, who have not fulfilled their responsibility properly, have been suspended,” he was quoted as saying by news agency PTI on Friday.
The suspension of Mr Siddaramaiah’s secretary K Govindaraj and state intelligence department chief Hemant Nimbalkar followed soon after.
Arrests
On Friday morning, the Karnataka police said they have arrested four people in connection with the stampede, including Nikhil Sosale, the head of marketing for RCB. Mr Sosale, who handles all promotional activities for the RCB, was on his way to Mumbai when he was arrested from the Bengaluru airport around 6.30 am.
The other three people who were arrested were officials of the event management company DNA Entertainment Private Limited, including its Vice-President Sunil Mathew, who handles IPL events for the company.
The police were also looking to arrest two officials of the Karnataka State Cricket Association, but they could not be traced. The cricket body moved the Karnataka High Court, stating that it was not connected with the stampede in any way and merely rents out the Chinnaswamy Stadium. The High Court then restrained authorities from taking coercive action against the office bearers of the association till June 16.
