Bad news for Virat Kohli as Karnataka govt blames RCB management for Bengaluru stampede, mentions name of star batter

In the major development in the Bengaluru stampede, which occurred last month during the victory parade of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to Chinnaswamy Stadium, the Karnataka government has submitted a report to the High Court on Thursday. In its report, the state government has pointed to serious lapses and mismanagement by the IPL franchise, also mentioning its star player, Virat Kohli.

How Virat Kohli was mentioned in Karnataka govt's report?

The state government, in its report, stated that RCB management contacted police on June 3, the day when the IPL team lifted the trophy, and informed them about a possible victory parade. The report also stated that such permissions must be sought at least 7 days prior to an 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 said.

The report further stated that a social media post was shared with a photo inviting people to participate in the victory parade with a free entry, which would commence from Vidhana Soudha to Chinnaswamy Stadium.

The state government report also added, ''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.''

Huge crowd led to stampede in Bengaluru

The report said, ''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.''

The report concluded by mentioning why the victory celebrations were not called off, citing that it ''could potentially incite violence among the gathered crowd and adversely affect overall law and order across the city.''