Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah — under attack from the BJP over yesterday’s stampede in Bengaluru at the felicitation ceremony of the  Royal Challengers Bengaluru that claimed 11 lives — said today that his government has suspended top police officers involved. The police commissioner and his deputy have been suspended and the next step will be against the RCB, the Karnataka State Cricket Association and their publicist DNA Entertainment, Mr Siddaramaiah told the media this  evening. Seemanth Kumar Singh will now replace city police chief B Dayananda.

The RCB had apparently disregarded police advice to allow a few more days to prepare for the felicitation ceremony, sources had said.

The police officers suspended have been accused of “substantial dereliction of duty”. 

The government said today that the chief of RCB had intimated the city police chief June 3 about holding the victory parade and celebrations the next day. But the the office of Police Commissioner failed to give written reply rejecting permission on grounds of lack of time to prepare for such a huge event. 

“The RCB and the Cricket Association went ahead to tweet about the celebrations and inviting the fans to Chinnaswamy stadium without going through the usual practice of issue of tickets or passes. Despite, the knowledge of these developments and expectation of huge turnout of cricket fans, steps were not taken to either have the event organised systematically at the stadium or give adequate information to the public to take necessary precautions for their safety or provide additional Police force for appropriate crowd management,” the government said. 

The state’s Criminal Investigation Department, the Chief Minister added, will take over the investigation into the mishap that has shocked the country. The Chief Minister had ordered an inquiry into the incident earlier by a one-man Commission of retired High Court judge Justice Michael Cunha.