Bengaluru stampede: Retired HC judge to head probe, fix responsibility

The one-man inquiry commission constituted by the Karnataka government under retired High Court judge John Michael Cunha to inquire into the June 4 stampede that killed 11 people, has been asked to identify the persons responsible for the omissions or deficiencies that led to this incident.
As per the terms of reference to the commission from the government, it has also suggested precautionary measures that can be taken to prevent recurrence of such incidents in the future, among others.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on June 5 announced that a one-man commission would be formed under Cunha to look into the procedural lapses in the issue, and the commission has been asked to give the report in 30 days.
The stampede occurred on June 4 evening in front of the Chinnaswamy stadium here, where a large number of people thronged to participate in the RCB team's IPL victory celebrations. Eleven people died and 56 were injured in the incident.
"...the Government, in exercise of the powers conferred under sub-rule (1) of rule 3 of the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952, has constituted a one-man inquiry commission under the chairmanship of John Michael Cunha, retired Judge of the Karnataka High Court, to conduct an inquiry into the incident," the official notification dated June 5 said.
"The inquiry commission shall have all the powers to conduct inquiries under the provisions of the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952 and Code of Civil Procedure, and the government expects the investigation to be completed and a report submitted within one month," it said.
The terms of reference in the notification include, to find -- whether the necessary permissions, rules and procedures were followed while organising the RCB team's victory felicitation ceremony at Chinnaswamy Stadium; the causes/causers of the rush and stampede that took place; the causes/causers of the incident that led to the death of 11 people and injury to more than 50 people based on the chain of events and circumstances.
Also, to inquire into the measures taken as a precaution regarding the incident and the omissions/deficiencies that may have occurred in this regard and to identify those responsible for this incident; and to inquire regarding other relevant aspects related to this incident.
As per the notification, the Director General and Inspector General of Police, Commissioner of Police - Bengaluru, and Deputy Commissioner - Bengaluru Urban district shall provide all the files/documents/etc that the Commission may require from time to time for the inquiry and shall be present during the inquiry and fully cooperate with the Commission.
This inquiry commission is separate from the magisterial inquiry that has been ordered, and shall conduct a parallel and comprehensive inquiry, it clarified.
The Chairman of the inquiry commission, if necessary, may take steps to obtain the services of one retired IPS officer and one retired IAS officer for technical and legal assistance. The salary/allowance expenses of the concerned officers shall be borne by the government. The Director General and Inspector General of Police, shall provide the necessary staff, materials, vehicles and office and furniture/telephone etc required for the commission of inquiry.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

The Hindu

an hour ago

• The Hindu

Provide protection to caste hatred victim: HC to police

Justice T. Vinod Kumar of the High Court on Friday directed the Suryapet police to protect Kotla Bhargavi, whose husband Vadlakonda Krishna alias Mala Bunty, was murdered allegedly over caste hatred. Bhargavi, belonging to the Gowda caste, and Krishna, a dalit, got married. Krishna was murdered on January 26 this year allegedly by the family members of Bhargavi owing to caste hatred, her counsel V. Raghunath said. Even after the murder of her husband, Bhargavi had been receiving threats that she too would be eliminated the way her husband was killed once the accused come out, the lawyer said. He contended that it is the duty of the government to protect the kith and kin of victims under the Prevention of Atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Act. He argued that even two months after Bhargavi approached the police authorities for protection in the backdrop of threats to her life, there was no response from the police officials.

The Hindu

2 hours ago

• The Hindu

Chief Justice calls for coordination between government offices and legal services authority

Kerala High Court Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar has stressed the need for coordination between government offices and the legal services authority. Delivering the inaugural address at 'Legal Services Summit 2025' organised by the Thiruvananthapuram District Legal Services Authority (TDLSA) here on Saturday, the Chief Justice said the Kerala State Legal Services Authority (KELSA) was formed under the Legal Services Authorities Act that was enacted to provide access justice to the most vulnerable sections of society. Each of KELSA's schemes was mirrored in statutory enactments that placed responsibility on government offices to perform the same work as the National Legal Services Authority or KELSA schemes did. The Legal Services Summit was important as it brought together all those working towards a common cause, he said. 'The synergy between legal services authority and statutory authority is not optional; it is a necessity,' the Chief Justice said. Almost all schemes of the legal services authority worked in the same areas as government departments did. For these schemes to succeed, KELSA could not work in isolation. And without proper coordination, even the best schemes could not reach the people who need them the most, he said. Giving the example of Samvada or other schemes to help children in trouble or in need of protection, he said these would find their mirror in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, and the Right to Education Act. The Women and Child Development department and the Education department played a major role in this area. Giving many more examples, he underlined that the schemes were well planned and there were strong laws, but what was needed was proper coordination and sharing of information by departments with each other and with the legal services authority so that people were not denied justice that they were desperately seeking for. Justice, he said, could not be delivered in isolation. The promise of access to justice would require multi-pronged action, the Chief Justice said. High Court judge and KeLSA executive chairman A. Muhamed Mustaque and High Court judge Raja Vijayaraghavan V. spoke. Nazeera S, principal district and sessions judge and chairperson of TDLSA presided. S. Shamnad, senior civil judge and secretary of TDLSA, welcomed the gathering. Awards were given away to individuals and institutions for their contributions to legal services. A legal awareness session on 'Gender sensitisation and women-centric laws' and 'Free and competent legal services – an overview' was held as well as an interactive session. A legal awareness play scripted by the TDLSA and the Kerala Police was also staged.

Indian Express

5 hours ago

• Indian Express

Why Siddaramaiah is still in driver's seat amid setbacks – caste survey to stampede

One month after the Congress government in Karnataka marked its second anniversary, a key question doing the rounds in the political circles is whether Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's hold on power has diminished in the wake of a series of setbacks, such as the Bengaluru stampede incident and the cancellation of the state caste survey. An analysis of the political situation and various developments, however, indicate that Siddaramaiah still remains a dominant political force that neither his party Congress nor the Opposition could ignore. An astute politician and OBC stalwart, Siddaramaiah has taken several steps to firewall himself from the repercussions of some recent setbacks. On June 12, the Siddaramaiah Cabinet decided to junk the caste survey which was conducted in 2015 during the previous term of the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government to gauge the social, economic and educational situation of various communities in the state, especially the Other Backward Classes (OBCs). The survey, which was only unveiled at the Cabinet meeting on April 11 this year, was seen as a key to deliver social justice – the main plank of the Congress as well as Siddaramaiah in the state. The June 12 Cabinet decision came following the Congress high command's direction to the Siddaramaiah dispensation to re-enumerate the castes on account of objections from many caste groups. 'We will do whatever the high command says. It is not my decision. It is not the decision of the Cabinet. It is not the decision of our government. It is a decision of the high command. They have told us to go for re-enumeration,' Siddaramaiah said after the meeting called by the Congress top brass in Delhi on June 10. The CM later attributed the Cabinet move scrapping the caste survey to a provision in the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1995, which mandates a fresh survey of backward castes after every 10 years. While the cancellation of one of the CM's main social justice projects was seen as a setback, it was also considered a 'reprieve' for him since Siddaramaiah had himself, in his first tenure, considered the caste survey a political hot potato that could damage the Congress's fortunes in the state. 'The recent decision of the BJP-led Centre to include a caste count within the purview of the population Census provided the first reprieve for Siddaramaiah over rejecting the 2015 caste survey,' a state government official said. 'It gave an opportunity to the Congress to buy time on the caste survey,' the official said. The Congress central leadership's direction to the Siddaramaiah government to go for a fresh caste count came amid growing tensions among several groups in Karnataka — including the dominant Lingayats and Vokkaligas, and even sections of the OBCs — over the findings of lower numbers for them in the 2015 survey. 'In a state where the promise of social justice has long formed the ideological glue of the Congress party, the recent handling of internal reservations and the caste survey report has been nothing short of a political disaster. What could have been a moment of progressive reform has instead devolved into factionalism, mistrust, and caste polarisation,' a Congress leader said prior to the June 12 Cabinet decision. Among the primary sources of angst over the caste survey report among Congress leaders was its findings about an increase in numbers and backwardness of two communities that are considered to be Siddaramaiah's core vote base — the OBC Kuruba group to which Siddaramaiah belongs and the Muslim community. 'Siddaramaiah, known for his AHINDA (minorities, backwards and Dalits) platform, has been accused of skewing the recommendations of the caste survey report to disproportionately favour his own Kuruba community. The proposed 12% reservation for Kurubas without a clear and evidence-based rationale has enraged other OBC groups,' a Congress leader said. 'Nowhere in the public domain has the government clarified the metrics or socio-economic criteria used to justify this move. This blatant caste favouritism has fractured the larger OBC solidarity.' After the cancellation of the 2015 caste survey, Siddaramaiah himself said, 'Both the dominant and the weak communities have expressed objections to the survey report.' A silver lining for Siddaramaiah amid the caste survey fiasco is the point that several Karnataka CMs had in the past rejected reports of the Backward Classes Commissions due to objections from various dominant and backward communities. 'The opposition to the caste surveys in Karnataka is not new. It has been done since the 1960s with the Naganagouda Commission, Havanur Commission, Venkataswamy Commission and the O Chinnappa Reddy Commission being opposed. Every survey has been opposed by the dominant communities is what we have seen,' Congress leader B K Hariprasad, who belongs to the OBC Billava group, said about the rejection of the 2015 survey. However, Siddaramaiah still appears to have managed to consolidate his own base through the leakage of the 2015 caste survey report. 'Siddaramaiah has now cemented his position as the main leader of the Kuruba and Muslim communities in Karnataka, who are spread across every Assembly constituency and together make up nearly 20% of the state's population,' said an observer. 'Siddaramaiah who already had the support of a majority of 135 Congress MLAs has now strengthened his position further since all MLAs are dependent on the support of Kurubas and Muslims at the constituency level.' Apart from the Backward Commission's recommendation for a significant hike in quotas for Kurubas and Muslims in the 2015 survey, Siddaramaiah is also seen to have established a hold on these communities by 'favouring' them in various decisions and government postings. Earlier this year, the Karnataka government passed a legislation to provide 4% reservation for Muslims in government contracts with a value of up to Rs 2 crore. The law has been rejected twice by the Governor and is still awaiting implementation. On June 19, the Siddaramaiah Cabinet also decided to increase the quota for Muslims in state housing projects from 10% to 15%. 'Muslims have been found to be among the highest homeless communities,' state law minister H K Patil said. The move is perceived as another bid for consolidation of Muslim support for Siddaramaiah besides sending out a signal about the Congress's support for the minorities — not just to Karnataka but also to poll-bound states like Bihar. Siddaramaiah suffered another blow on June 4 when 11 people were killed in a stampede during a celebration by the fans of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) club at the M Chinnaswamy Cricket Stadium in Bengaluru over its first-ever IPL title win. The stampede occurred even as Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM D K Shivakumar were holding a felicitation event for the RCB at the Vidhana Soudha, the government headquarters. There have been accusations of the stampede being caused due to administrative and systemic failures involving even the top echelons of the government. To tackle the row, Siddaramaiah suspended five police officers, including the then Bengaluru police commissioner, and ordered two separate judicial inquiries (apart from the police probe) into the incident. The decision to suspend senior IPS officer B Dayananda, who had largely served a two-year stint as a tough Bengaluru police commissioner without any blemish, over the stampede dented the police morale, but it did not have any political bearing on the CM or the Congress. 'I have acted on the basis of prima facie evidence of dereliction of duty by police officers… What is the action that BJP and JDS have been demanding? They wanted a judicial inquiry. We have constituted a judicial inquiry. All those who have committed mistakes, we have acted against them. What mistake has the government committed?' Siddaramaiah asked. He also said the stampede deaths hurt the Congress government. 'This incident should not have happened. After I became the Chief Minister, no such incidents had occurred. It has happened due to the mistakes of the officials, is what is prima facie evident. We have taken action. I have been hurt by the incident. The whole government is hurt by the incident,' he said.