Bengaluru stampede: Karnataka BJP leader files police complaint against CM, Deputy CM

Bengaluru: Karnataka BJP general secretary P Rajeev on Friday said he has filed a police complaint seeking legal action against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, his deputy D K Shivakumar and Home Minister G Parameshwara for the June 4 stampede that killed 11 people.

The stampede occurred on Wednesday evening in front of the Chinnaswamy stadium here, where a large number of people thronged to participate in the RCB team's IPL victory celebrations. Eleven people died and 56 were injured in the incident.

"For this human loss, accused number one is Siddaramiah and accused number two is D K Shivakumar. Both of them had a motive to take political gain (from RCB win). They misused power and because of them, deaths have happened. I have mentioned G Parameshwara as accused number three. According to me, he has no motive, but he was negligent and has failed as the Home Minister," Rajeev said.

Speaking to reporters after giving a complaint at the Cubbon Park police station here, he said the CM and his deputy will have to take moral responsibility for the tragedy.

"I have given the complaint copy to the ACP. It has to be converted into a FIR. If not, I will go to court on this and register a PCR. I urge for a transparent legal process," he added.

The former BJP MLA hit out at the government for suspending Bengaluru police commissioner B Dayananda and four other senior police officials in connection with the incident.

Alleging that Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar had a motive of taking political gain from the RCB's IPL victory, he asked, "What does the government have to do with the RCB? Why was public money spent on RCB's victory celebrations?"

He claimed that the police had said clearly that they could not provide a bandobast, as police personnel had done overnight duty on Tuesday following RCB's win, as there were celebrations across the city and they had no rest. "But, they (CM and DCM) misused their power and instructed to provide bandobast."

Further alleging that celebration events were held by those heading the government, overruling the police department's opinion, Rajeev said, there was a lack of preparations for the crowd management. "Huge crowd had gathered there. This is nothing but complete negligence," he added.