Bengaluru: Karnataka government on Friday relieved MLC K Govindaraj as political secretary to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and transferred Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Intelligence, Hemant Nimbalkar, following the stampede outside the Chinnaswamy Stadium that killed 11 people, official sources said.
These decisions came a day after Siddaramaiah suspended Bengaluru police commissioner B Dayananda and four other senior police officials.
The stampede occurred on Wednesday evening in front of the stadium, 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.
The State government is facing flak after a stampede during the RCB’s IPL-2025 victory celebrations at Chinnaswamy stadium that claimed 11 lives.
Earlier in the day, Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy had accused Govindaraj of putting pressure on the CM to hold RCB victory celebrations.
The opposition BJP and JDS leaders are demanding the resignation of CM Siddaramaiah, Deputy CM DK Shivakumar, and Home Minister G Parameshwara. On Thursday, the government suspended five senior officers, including Bengaluru City Police Commissioner B Dayanand.
Accusing the government of making police officers scapegoats, BJP and JDS leaders said the investigation by CID, magisterial probe, and inquiry by a retired High Court judge would not reveal the truth, and justice would not be served to the victims’ families. The Congress party high command has to remove Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, said Kumaraswamy.
