Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) organized the victory parade to Chinnaswamy Stadium “unilaterally” and “without seeking consultation or permission” from the city police, Karnataka government has said in its report to the High Court, which has been now made public.
The Karnataka High Court has ordered the state government to publicly disclose its status report on the stampede incident outside the M Chinnaswamy Stadium that occured during the celebrations of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) team’s maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) title win.
The unfortunate tragedy led to the death of 11 people and left over 50 injured. The state government had requested the High Court to keep the report confidential, but as per ESPNCricinfo, the court on Monday categorically stated that there were no legal grounds for such confidentiality and they were merely “facts as perceived” by the government.
The court has also directed the state government to furnish the reports to the other parties involved in the case, the RCB franchise, Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), DNA Entertainment Networks, the event partner of the Red and Gold franchise.
Here’s what the report said?
The state government has said in its report that the RCB management contacted police on June 3 — the day RCB won the IPL after an 18-year trophy drought — and informed the cops about a possible victory parade. This was in the nature of an intimation, not a requisition for permission as required under the law,” the report says. It adds that such permissions must be sought at least seven days before the event.
“In the present case, no applications in the prescribed formats were submitted to the licensing authority by the applicant/organiser. In the absence of such information required under the prescribed formats, it was not possible for the licence-granting authority to consider the request positively. Accordingly, the PI of the Cubbon Park Police Station did not grant the permission to the request made by KSCA on 03.06.2025 at around 6.30 pm, due to a lack of information regarding the expected approximate gathering, arrangements made, possible bottlenecks, and the like, for both possible outcomes of the final match, i.e., whether RCB won or lost,” the report says.’
The report, published by NDTV, said RCB, without consulting the police, posted a photo at 7.01 am the next day on its official social media handles, “informing that there is free entry for people and inviting the public to participate in the Victory Parade, which would commence at Vidhana Soudha and conclude at Chinnaswamy Stadium”.
Another post was made at 8 am, reiterating this information. “Subsequently, on 04.06.2025, at 8:55 am, the RCB shared a video clip of Mr. Virat Kohli, a prominent player of the RCB team, on RCB’s official handle @Rcbtweets on X, in which he stated that the team intended to celebrate this victory with the people of Bengaluru city and RCB fans on 04.06.2025 in Bengaluru,” the report says.
“Thereafter, RCB made one more post at 3:14 p.m on 04.06.2024, announcing a Victory Parade to be held from Vidhana Soudha to Chinnaswamy Stadium from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM, stating that this victory parade would be followed by celebrations at Chinnaswamy Stadium. This post mentioned, for the first and only time, that free passes (limited entry) were available on shop.royalchallengers.com, and until this point, there had been no information regarding the disbursement of passes, implying that the event was open to all based on RCB’s prior posts,” it adds.
It mentioned, The posts by the RCB handles drew immense engagement and got a combined 44 lakh views. “This led to a public gathering of immense proportions, exceeding 3,00,000, individuals. One basis for estimating the crowd size is the BMRCL ridership numbers for 04.06.2025, which transported around 9.66 lakh persons on that date (with the average ridership on regular days being around 6 lakh persons per day). Therefore, including those who travelled on foot, used public transport, and private means on 04.06.2025, the estimated gathering would be well beyond 3,00,000, individuals,” it says.
“In addition to the crowd that had gathered in and around the Chinnaswamy Stadium, a significant number of people had gathered along the roads from HAL Airport (landing place of the team) to Taj West End (destination), spanning a distance of approximately 14 kilometres to catch a glimpse of the team members. This created a need for extensive deployment of police personnel en route to manage such crowds and prevent any mishaps,” the report says.
It says video clips of this spontaneous crowding were circulated on social media. This “further heightened the atmosphere, leading to even more people gathering en route and at the stadium”.
“This impromptu gathering of crowds on the roads necessitated the urgent deployment of large numbers of police personnel along the routes, in addition to those required at the stadium and surrounding areas. This situation arose due to a lack of proper planning by the Organisers and the failure to provide the necessary information in advance to the concerned authorities,” the report says.
Around 3 pm on June 4, there was a sudden surge of people near Chinnaswamy Stadium. “Around 3,00,000 individuals gathered in this limited space, far exceeding the stadium’s capacity of merely 35,000. Such a crowd concentrated at the entry gates of the stadium following posts made by the RCB/organisers on their official handles stating that entry to the event would be free for all,” it says.
The report says that around 3.14 pm, RCB and other organisers published a post on their social media accounts ‘for the first time and belatedly”, clarifying that entry to the stadium would require limited pass entry. This, the report says, created “confusion, frustration, and chaos among the public who had already gathered at the stadium and were in high emotions”.
“As restless crowds gathered at the gates, the situation deteriorated further when the organisers/RCB/DNA/KSCA responsible for gate management failed to open the gates at the appropriate time and in an unsynchronised manner. This prompted the crowd to force their way into the stadium by breaking open Gate Nos. 1, 2, and 21, due to complete mismanagement by the organisers,” it says.