NEW DELHI: Facing mounting criticism over the Bengaluru stampede that claimed 11 lives, Karnataka deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar on Friday defended the Congress-led state government’s response, insisting it had “done its best to give justice” and questioning, “What more can a government do?”“Opposition party, BJP, was asking for a judicial inquiry. My honorable chief minister was kind enough to announce a judicial inquiry. What we have found, what we have got internally ... action has been taken on some of them. Investigation is going on, the magistrate investigation, a judicial investigation. And again the cases has been referred to the CID,” Shivakumar told reporters. “What more a government can do. The government has done its best to give justice and see that we will come up with a plan of action with such type of events in the future,” the deputy CM said.“Let them (BJP) demand (my resignation). They are trying to do politics over the dead bodies. We don’t want to do politics,” Shivakumar added.The deputy CM’s remarks comes amid high-pitched attack by the BJP over the Bengaluru stampede which claimed 11 lives. Earlier in the day, BJP announced a protest demanding resignation of Karnataka minister. “There was no need to organise this program (RCB’s victory parade) in such a hurry. It would have been better if the program had been organised 2-3 days later … Who is responsible for those who died … I think the police were not ready for this program … It is a failure of the Karnataka government. The government should resign. This evening, we will stage a protest against this in Karnataka,” BJP MLA Mahesh Tenginkai told ANI. CM Siddaramaiah on Thursday had announced major action against top cops, officials of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) team, state cricket body and the event management company. Siddaramaiah suspended Bengaluru police commissioner B Dayananda and four other senior police officials.Karnataka government also removed MLC K Govindaraj as political secretary to chief minister Siddaramaiah and transferred Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Intelligence, Hemant Nimbalkar.
KSCA officials call FIR a ‘knee-jerk reaction’, blame government pressure
The Karnataka high court, however, granted interim protection from arrest to key office bearers of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) and restrained the police from taking any coercive action against the officials until the next hearing.KSCA officials have challenged the police FIR filed against them calling it a “knee-jerk reaction” carried out under political pressure.In a petition submitted to the court, KSCA president Raghuram Bhat, secretary A Shankar, treasurer ES Jayaram, and other members of the association argued that they have been unfairly targeted following the tragic incident outside Chinnaswamy Stadium, which claimed 11 lives during the RCB IPL victory celebrations.“There is absolutely no wrong that can be attributed to the petitioner committee or its office bearers,” the plea stated, adding that despite voluntarily offering compensation to the victims’ families, the KSCA has been subjected to “undue hardship and harassment.”The petition also highlighted the professional stature of the office-bearers — including chartered accountants and senior advocates — and alleged that public statements made by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who demanded arrests in the case, had influenced police action.The association insisted that the FIR was a politically motivated response to mounting public outrage and media scrutiny directed at the state government in the aftermath of the tragedy.In a related development, the Karnataka high court also heard a separate petition filed by RCB management representative Nikhil Sosale and the Royal Challengers Bengaluru franchise. The matter was, however, adjourned to Monday without any interim orders.
