On June 4, a deadly stampede broke out outside Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru after Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s IPL win which claimed the lives of 11 people. Following the incident, Karnataka Government suspended 4 senior police officers, including Bengaluru Commissioner of Police and Assistant Commissioner of Police. Now, ACP Vikash Kumar Vikash has filed a petition with the Central Administrative Tribunal saying that he has been made a scapegoat for the incident.
In his petition, ACP Vikash said that the Karnataka government’s suspension order against him is “arbitrary” and “premature”. He said that the disciplinary action was taken without an enquiry or an opportunity to be heard.
ACP Vikash described the action against him as a knee-jerk reaction to public pressure. The petition added that the order is a cyclostyled and mechanical decision lacking independent evaluation of the officer’s role.
He also mentioned that there was just a 12 hours window between RCB winning the IPL and the celebrations and Police simply didn’t have the time to make arrangements for such a large gathering.
