There were cheers, fireworks, and then—devastation.
As Bengaluru celebrated Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s long-awaited IPL win, a victory parade outside the iconic Chinnaswamy Stadium ended in disaster. A crowd surge turned into a deadly stampede on June 4, leaving 11 dead and over 50 injured. What was meant to be a historic day in cricket lore quickly spiraled into a public tragedy—and now, the legal reckoning has begun.
In the aftermath, the Karnataka High Court today declined to offer interim relief to Nikhil Sosale, Head of Marketing and Revenue at Royal Challengers Bengaluru, who was arrested in connection with the incident. His plea for immediate reprieve was turned down by Justice SR Krishna Kumar, who made it clear: no decisions without hearing the State first.
“I need to give the State a chance. This came at 2:30—can’t pass orders in haste,” the judge remarked, pushing the matter to Monday for detailed arguments.
Sosale’s legal team argued that his arrest was not just abrupt but unlawful, pointing fingers at the political overreach behind the police action. According to his petition, the arrest wasn’t the result of any investigation—it was allegedly an outcome of a verbal directive from the Chief Minister. The FIR, the lawyers argued, had been filed by an officer who has since been suspended.
But the Court didn’t buy that logic so easily. “How does suspension of the officer prove the FIR was illegitimate?” the bench questioned.
On its part, the State’s Advocate General, Shashi Kiran, asked for time to prepare a response.
As the judicial gears grind, public outrage continues to simmer. The tragedy unfolded when fans—led to believe entry to the stadium would be free—flooded the gates to catch a glimpse of their IPL heroes. With crowd control measures falling apart, the crush led to fatalities and injuries in one of the darkest moments in the city’s recent sports history.
A single-member commission led by retired Justice John Michael Cunha is now probing the incident.
Meanwhile, police have registered an FIR against Royal Challengers Sports Private Limited (RCSPL) and several of its senior executives, Sosale included. He was picked up from Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport early on June 6.
In his petition, Sosale alleges the arrest was not only arbitrary but also a constitutional violation, citing infringements of his rights under Article 19 and principles of natural justice. “This is scapegoating, not justice,” his plea asserts.
The High Court has also initiated a suo motu case to examine the wider handling of the incident, with a status report now due on June 10.
What began as a long-overdue celebration now unfolds as a courtroom drama, with questions swirling around accountability, crowd management, and whether this tragedy was a failure of planning—or a rush to assign blame.
