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Eleven people died, and 47 people were injured in the stampede outside Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy Stadium, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Wednesday, June 4, hours after the tragedy occurred. He said the government has ordered a magisterial investigation into the tragedy. However, he stopped short of accepting failure on behalf of the state government, saying that the administration was caught unawares by the large crowd.
During a hurriedly convened press conference, Siddaramaiah said that the government had announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh each to the families of the deceased and would bear the medical expenses of those injured. He said that most of the people who died were young and in their 20s.
The Chief Minister lost his cool several times while answering questions from journalists about placing responsibility for the stampede. Siddaramaiah was asked repeatedly why the police had failed to estimate such a large turnout, especially when RCB had announced free passes.
He repeatedly said, “This tragedy should not have happened, but it did. And we (the government) are very pained by it… It was the Cricket Association which organised the event and we only provided security.”
He said that the magisterial inquiry would reveal whether the fault lay with the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), the police, or the government.
“I do not want to defend the incident, and I do not want to politicise it,” he said.
Siddaramaiah said he has ordered a magisterial inquiry by the Bengaluru Urban Deputy Commissioner into the incident and asked for the report to be handed in within 15 days.
When asked about the urgency shown by the government in conducting the felicitation, Siddaramaiah said it wasn’t the government but the KSCA that arranged the programme. He said the Chinnaswamy stadium has a capacity of 35,000 people, and that passes had been issued according to the seating capacity of the stadium. However, two to three lakh fans gathered outside the stadium.
“The stadium had small gates. The people entered through the gates and also broke them. A stampede took place during this process, and nobody expected such a large crowd. Prima facie, it looks like this is what happened. We cannot yet say exactly what happened, that’s why we ordered a magisterial inquiry,” Siddaramaiah said.
Asked if more police should have been deployed, he said that all the police available in the city had been deployed.
