The Karnataka government has blamed RCB, its event management partner, and the state cricket association for ignoring standard procedures and safety measures during the team’s victory march in Bengaluru, leading to a stampede that claimed 11 lives on June 4.

This has been revealed in the status report filed by the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government before a Karnataka High Court division bench on Thursday.

The state has pinned the blame on the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), stating that they had unilaterally decided to hold the victory celebration without seeking prior permission from the police and the Bengaluru municipal corporation.

The status report said: “The RCB management, along with its event management partner DNA Networks Private Ltd and the Karnataka State Cricket Association, unilaterally decided to hold the victory celebration.

“The RCB’s official social media handles saw 16 lakh views for their first post, the second post received 4.26 lakh views, the third post touched 7.6 lakh views, and the fourth post received a whopping 17 lakh views. This saw the people flocking towards the Chinnaswamy Stadium.”

According to the report, it was only closer to the celebration time that the RCB announced that entry to the stadium would require free passes issued by them, and they had issued only a limited number of passes. They announced it at 3.14pm, and by then, a massive crowd of over 3 lakh people had gathered at the venue.

The state government on Thursday also justified their action to suspend IPS official Vikash Kumar Vikash before the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).

They maintained that the police officer and his colleagues behaved as if they were “servants of RCB”. The state’s submissions came during its challenge to the CAT’s July 1 order that had quashed the suspension of Vikash Kumar Vikash and directed his immediate reinstatement with full pay and allowances.

Justice John Michael D’Cunha, former judge of Karnataka High Court entrusted by the state government to probe the stampede, had submitted his report to Siddaramaiah last Friday. The two-volume report was briefly discussed by Siddaramaiah in the cabinet meeting on Thursday.

“It has been decided to discuss the commission’s findings in detail in the next cabinet meeting,” said H.K. Patil, law and parliamentary affairs minister.

The state government has issued the terms of reference for the commission to suggest precautionary measures to prevent similar tragedies in the future. Justice D’Cunha was tasked with identifying those responsible for the deficiencies that led to the tragedy.

The stampede is being probed by a special investigation team of the CID after the case was filed by the Cubbon Park police station. In addition to the judicial commission, the chief minister had also ordered a magisterial probe, and that report is yet to be submitted.

A total of 654 traffic personnel were deployed, including four DCPs, six ACPs, 23 PIs, 57 PSIs, 104 ASIs, and 462 constables.

The route taken by the RCB team, from HAL to Taj West End, Vidhana Soudha, and finally Chinnaswamy Stadium, was regulated to minimise disruption.