The suspension of Bengaluru Police Commissioner B. Dayananda and four other senior officers following the stampede outside Chinnaswamy Stadium has led to open criticism from former police officials and Opposition leaders.

The stampede, which occurred during the IPL victory celebrations of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on Wednesday, resulted in the deaths of 11 people and injuries to 56.

Former Bengaluru Police Commissioner and BJP leader Bhaskar Rao called the decision a low point for the police force.

Posting on X, Rao wrote, "Mr Siddaramiah has gone into panic mode. The suspension of Bengaluru City Police Commissioner is the darkest day in the history of Karnataka Police. The prize for telling the truth and he and his team slogged the whole night to keep Bengaluru safe. Everyone in Karnataka knows that it is the uncontrollable deputy chief minister who orchestrated the death march is the main culprit."

Rao also targeted the state government’s response. "No chief minister has become as helpless, cowardly, nervous and panicky. The government has blood on its hands and now has lost its mind too. The government is now in disaster."

Another former Bengaluru Police Commissioner, Jyothiprakash Mirji, questioned the logic behind targeting only the police. “I would like to say that this is an irresponsible government. The government should work with officials by taking them into confidence. The government should be ashamed. The Chief Secretary, Home Secretary and other secretaries are also responsible — why haven’t they been suspended?” he asked.

The Karnataka government has also transferred Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence) Hemant Nimbalkar in the aftermath of the incident. Official sources confirmed the transfer on Friday.

Opposition parties BJP and JD(S) have accused the Congress-led government of shielding the political leadership while holding police officers accountable.

JD(S) leader and Union minister H.D. Kumaraswamy said, "Yesterday's decision to suspend five police officers is another blunder of this government. The entire fault lies with the government. To build their image by misusing this IPL victory of RCB, both CM and DCM have taken decisions (to organise victory celebration) by going against the advice given by senior officers."

He added, "Now after the bad incident (stampede) that took place on June 4, the government is blaming it as police failure. Failure of police means government failure. This government should go according to me."

BJP state president B.Y. Vijayendra called for the resignation of chief minister Siddaramaiah and deputy chief minister D.K. Shivakumar. He said, "Police commissioner of Bengaluru has been made the scapegoat in this entire episode. But it was a failure on part of the intelligence and the intelligence department is with Siddaramaiah."

He added, "The chief minister has to tender his resignation and D K Shivakumar has to resign."

According to Vijayendra, the FIR registered in the case names RCB, DNA event management firm, and the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) as accused. "But in this entire episode accused number one is the chief minister himself, accused number two is deputy CM D.K. Shivakumar - they have to be named as accused number one and two, because it is sheer carelessness, negligence on part of the state government, which has led to this tragedy," he said.

He also questioned how the celebration was allowed in the first place. "Pointing out that as per the FIR, when the permission was sought for victory rally, it was denied by the police, Vijayendra asked, then how did the government decide to organise the victory celebration on the grand steps of Vidhana Soudha."

He concluded, "Despite deaths they went on with the celebrations. Shivakumar had even gone to the victory celebration at the stadium despite deaths there."

BJP leader R. Ashoka alleged that the state government is the "culprit".

The BJP leader claimed that, for the first time in Karnataka’s history, a police commissioner has been suspended. "The police carried injured youths to hospitals, but no Congress workers were present. Yet, the police have been suspended. We will continue our political fight until justice is served and against making someone a scapegoat," he said.

Ashoka cited that the police commissioner had denied permission, but the FIR states that the RCB franchise decided to hold the event in the evening (June 4). "This means it was an unauthorised event. If Section 144 had been imposed, no one would have attended. Since it was unauthorised, the programme should have been cancelled by imposing that section. The government took action against the police to avoid embarrassment. The government is the culprit, and the guilty are within the government. Who instructed the franchise to hold the event? Who brought the cricketers?" he questioned.

"Despite the police denying permission, the Congress government took the law into its own hands and held the event. Everyone was busy with photo shoots, and no one cared about the people," he said.

Meanwhile, Karnataka government on Friday also relieved MLC K Govindaraj as political secretary to chief minister Siddaramaiah. "The appointment of K Govindaraj as Political Secretary to the Chief Minister is hereby revoked with immediate effect. Accordingly, K Govindaraj is hereby relieved from the post of Political Secretary to the Chief Minister with immediate effect," an official notification said.