Karnataka High Court on Saturday asked the state government nine questions on Wednesday’s killer stampede, from who decided on the celebrations to whether crowd-control measures were adopted, tightening the screws on the beleaguered Siddaramaiah administration.

The state government, which has suspended senior police officers and arrested officials of Royal Challengers Bengaluru and event management company DNA Entertainment as a face-saver, has till June 10 to reply to the queries.

The questions posed by the bench of acting Chief Justice V. Kameswar Rao and Justice C.M. Joshi, following a suo motu writ petition taken up by the court on the stampede, are:

• Who decided to hold the victory celebration?
• What was the manner and when?
• Was permission sought to organise the felicitation?
• Was any standard operating procedure formulated to manage crowds of 50,000 and above at any sporting event or celebration of this nature?
• What steps were taken to regulate the traffic and the crowd?
• What medical and other facilities were arranged at the venue?
• Was an assessment made in advance of the number of people who might be present at the celebrations?
• Were the injured given immediate attention by medical experts at the venue? If not, why?
• How much time was taken to take the injured to hospital?

More than 2.5 lakh fans had assembled at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium, which can seat only 35,000, to celebrate the RCB’s maiden IPL title, setting off chaos and a stampede that killed 11 people and left
30-odd injured.

Soudha spotlight

Under the glare is the felicitation provided to the franchise at the Vidhana Soudha (legislature building) earlier on Wednesday, with many blaming it partly for the subsequent stampede at M. Chinnaswamy.

The tens of thousands of fans who attended the Soudha event had followed their cricket heroes to the stadium, where the police failed to control them.

Trying to distance his government from the Soudha event, Siddaramaiah on Friday sacked his political secretary K. Govindaraju, whom unofficial reports accused of having played a key role in the celebrations being held at the legislature. Govindaraju has denied the charge.

On Friday, senior officials of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), facing arrest under Siddaramaiah’s orders, told the high court that the decision for the Soudha felicitation was taken by the state government itself.

The high court gave interim relief from arrest to the KSCA president, secretary and treasurer, but the last two resigned on Saturday “owning moral responsibility” for the stampede.

The FIR registered by the Cubbon Park police station against officials of the RCB, DNA and the KSCA says the cricket body had sought permission for holding the Soudha felicitation even before the RCB won the championship on June 3.

The cricket association’s CEO, Shubhendu Ghosh, had shot off a letter seeking permission from the department of personnel and administration on June 3, hours before the IPL final. The department granted permission the next day.

DNA Entertainment Networks organised the ceremony.

The KSCA sought permission also for a victory parade from the Soudha to the stadium but the Bengaluru police refused, citing the challenges of crowd security and traffic management.

After the stampede, a majority among the cabinet ministers pointed their finger at Govindaraju, who was sacked without any official reason being cited.

Those arrested on Friday are RCB marketing head Nikhil Sosale, whom the high court refused any relief, and three DNA officials.

As for the KSCA officials whom the high court protected from arrest till June 16, they told the bench that they and DNA officials had met Siddaramaiah and other top government officials seeking their support for a felicitation to be held at the Vidhana Soudha.

“It was the Karnataka state government which decided to hold a felicitation ceremony after the RCB lifted the IPL 2025 championship,” their petition said.

“Apart from the chief minister, the deputy chief minister, and several cabinet ministers as well as top police officers and secretariat employees attended the felicitation programme.”

On Saturday, KSCA secretary A. Shankar and treasurer E.S. Jairam announced their resignations in a media release.

“This is to inform that due to the unforeseen and unfortunate events that have unfolded in the last two days and though our role was very limited, but owing moral responsibility, we wish to state that last night we have tendered our resignation to our respective posts as the secretary and treasurer of the Karnataka State Cricket Association, by way of a letter dated 06.06.2025 to the president of Karnataka State Cricket Association,” the release said.

KSCA president Raghuram Bhatt said the resignations had been accepted.

The Karnataka government has decided to increase the ex gratia amount to ₹25 lakh from ₹10 lakh for the kin of the deceased.

Judicial probe

On Saturday, the state government issued an order for a judicial probe into the stampede to be conducted by Justice John Michael Cunha, a retired Karnataka High Court judge.

The government has also ordered a magisterial inquiry by the deputy commissioner for the Bengaluru region in his capacity as an executive magistrate.