Karnataka Home Minister Dr G Parmeshwara has claimed that approximately 8 lakh people descended upon Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy Stadium for Royal Challengers Bangalore’s victory celebrations, which triggered a stampede and resulted in the deaths of 11 people and injuries to 47 on Tuesday evening.
We estimated that 1 lakh people were outside Vidhan Soudha and 25,000 outside the stadium. We did not expect that 2.5 lakh people would come. 8.70 lakh Metro tickets were sold. Assuming most were cricket fans, 8 lakh people showed up. There has been no previous instance of so many people gathering for cricket. It would have been a record had it gone well. I’ve spoken to RCB and spoken to the KSCA – they’ve told us their opinion,” Dr Parmeshwara said.
The victims of the stampede were all under the age of 40, with a 13-year-old girl among the dead. Three teenagers and six young adults in their twenties were among those who died. Most had arrived with friends to witness a once-in-a-generation moment – RCB’s maiden IPL title win after an 18-year wait.
I have come here to see what can be done to make sure this doesn’t happen again. There is no information about people dying on the spot. We do not have information on how many died at the gates. Stampedes occurred at Gates 7, 6, 2, 2A, 16, 17, 18, and 21. Forces from all divisions were mobilised,” he added.
Among the dead are Divyanshi (13), Bhoomik (20), Shivalinga (17), Prajwal (20), Shravan (20), Chinmayi (19), Sahana (25), Akshata (27), Devi (29), Doresha (32), and Manoj (33). Many of them were from Bengaluru, but others had travelled from nearby districts.
Meanwhile, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar today broke down while recalling what the mother of a man who died in the stampede during RCB’s IPL victory celebration on Wednesday told him.
“One mother requested me to give the body of her son without doing a postmortem. But it was a legal process,” Mr Shivakumar told reporters, tears in his eyes.
He said it does not matter who gave permission to hold the victory event in Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium as accountability will anyway be fixed and action will follow after a thorough investigation.