Hours before the Indian Premier League (IPL) match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Gujarat Titans, more than 240 CCTV cameras at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru were damaged and disconnected. The incident occurred on Friday, April 24, and left key areas across the stadium without surveillance.
The accused were identified as Manjunath E (27) and Abdul Kalam (19), employees of IVS Digital Solutions, a sub-distributor firm handling maintenance work. Cubbon Park police registered an FIR based on a complaint filed by Aditya Bhat, an employee of Staqu Technologies Pvt Ltd, a Gurugram-based company that provides AI-driven surveillance solutions.
The surveillance contract for IPL match-day monitoring had been given by RCB to Staqu Technologies Pvt Ltd, and Staqu had further sub-leased the maintenance work to IVS Digital Solutions.
According to the FIR filed on Saturday, April 25, the two allegedly entered the stadium around 11.30 am using deactivated access cards and without valid entry passes. It said they entered the CCTV control room without authorisation and “intentionally mishandled and damaged the Network Video Recorder (NVR) and fibre connections”, causing major disruption to the stadium’s surveillance system.
The FIR added that the accused first disabled cameras monitoring all the entry gates, perimeter cameras, the D-Corporate stand, and other sensitive locations. They then allegedly moved from the server room to the junction box near the parking area and destroyed optical fibre connections, leading to a large-scale surveillance blackout.
The disruption severely affected real-time monitoring during the IPL fixture, preventing police personnel deployed for match security from accessing live feeds from several sensitive zones across the stadium. However, police said alternate arrangements were immediately put in place after the issue was detected, ensuring that overall security during the game was not compromised.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Akshay M Hakay said the accused reportedly told police that they had not been paid dues amounting to Rs 10 lakh. They alleged that the act was carried out deliberately after repeated non-payment and frustration over pending dues.
The DCP said that all repair work was completed before spectators were allowed inside. “All repair work was completed before the gates opened at 3:30 pm, ensuring security feeds were restored,” he said.
He added that the investigation was still underway and police were also questioning management-level staff of IVS Digital Solutions to understand the circumstances that led to the incident and whether others were involved.
The two accused have been booked under Section 324(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for causing loss or damage involving an amount of more than Rs 20,000 but less than Rs 1 lakh. Further investigation is underway.
This article was written by a student interning with TNM.