Bengaluru Stampede: HC Tells State To Keep Dept Communication With Chief Secy, Warns Against Disparate Findings By Multiple Inquiry Commissions

The Karnataka High Court on Thursday directed the state to entrust all departmental communication in the days leading up to and after the Bengaluru Stampede in the custody of the Chief Secretary of Karnataka. This direction was made in the suo moto case on the stampede that occurred outside the MA Chinnaswamy Stadium during the IPL winning celebrations of the cricket team Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).

Advocate General Shashi Kiran Shetty assured the bench that the custody of the documents would be transferred and submitted that the safekeeping of the documents would be in the best interests of the state as well.

On the last hearing, the division bench of Acting Chief Justice and Justice CM Joshi had allowed the Advocate General's request to submit the state's report on the incident and its investigation in a sealed cover.

At this hearing, the bench took note of the report. It questioned the Advocate General about the multiple commissions that had been set up to look into the incident. Notably, a magisterial inquiry was launched into the incident, and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had also initiated a one-man commission inquiry into the matter, helmed by a retired judge.

Expressing confusion over the need for multiple enquiry commissions, the bench warned the Advocate General about disparate findings into the same mattter coming from the different commissions.

"We will not spare you (goverment) if the findings are different by different commissions," the bench remarked.

The bench further directed the AG to place the terms of reference to the various commissions before it. The AG submitted that he would supply translated copies of the entire report within two days, and undertook that the terms of reference to the different commissions were different.

The high court had taken suo motu cognizance of the incident on June 5, one day after the incident and had issued notice to the Karnataka Government to ascertain cause of the tragedy and how to prevent it in future. Reportedly 11 people lost their lives in the stampede while over 30 people are stated to have suffered injuries. RCB won the 2025 IPL Final defeating Punjab Kings on June 3, winning the coveted trophy for the first time, since the inception of the IPL in 2008.