Bengaluru (TIP) – Bengaluru city police late on Thursday (June 5, 2025) night arrested a top official of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) franchise and three from the event management company DNA Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., who organised the victory celebrations for the team in the city that led to stampede and 11 deaths.
The arrests came hours after Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced at a press conference the suspension of city police commissioner B. Dayananda and directed police to arrest RCB and the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) for the stampede.
Nikhil Sosale, the head of marketing and revenue, RCB at Diageo India Pvt. Ltd., was reportedly arrested from Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) while he was flying out to Mumbai, sources said. The city police have also arrested three from DNA Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.. All the four have been presently at Cubbon Park Police Station where they are being interrogated, sources said.
Cubbon Park Police had registered a suo motu FIR against RCB franchise, KSCA officials and DNA Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., booking them for culpable homicide, illegal assembly among other serious charges for the stampede that killed 11 on Wednesday, June 4.

“The stampede incident…was due to RCB franchise, DNA, and KSCA administrative committee giving permission for the programme and arranging the programme at KSCA stadium without adequate arrangements for the programme, without adequate security for fans to enter peacefully, without balanced arrangements for fans,” said the first information report in Kannada, filed at the Cubbon Park police station.
“Additionally, thousands of fans gathered around the stadium due to RCB’s official posts on social media and social networking sites providing misleading information about free entry for the public at gates, leading to fan gatherings. This incident occurred due to this reason,” the FIR added.
The police invoked sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 115 (voluntarily causing hurt), 118 (voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt by using dangerous weapons or means), 121 (voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 190 (liability of members of an unlawful assembly for offences committed in pursuit of a common object), 132 (assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharging their duty), and 125 (12) (acts endangering life or personal safety of others) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
A combative Siddaramaiah appeared at a press conference hours later, announcing that five police officers — police chief B Dayananda, Bengaluru (west) ACP Vikash Kumar Vikash, Bengaluru (central) DCP Shekar H Tekkannavar, Cubbon Park ACP C Balakrishna and inspector AK Girish — will be suspended and a one-man judicial commission headed by retired high court judge Michael D’Cunha will submit a report in 30 days.
“FIRs have been registered, and instructions have been issued to arrest the representatives of these organisations,” Siddaramaiah said.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) was tasked with carrying out a parallel investigation into the role of these three entities. “Since I became an MLA, minister, deputy CM, and now CM, no such incident has occurred. This tragedy has shaken us deeply,” he added.
But the Opposition continued to gun for his resignation. “CM Siddaramaiah and deputy CM DK Shivakumar are directly responsible for the tragic stampede,” said Leader of the Opposition R Ashoka.
The tragedy occurred on Wednesday afternoon as hundreds of thousands of people thronged the Chinnaswamy stadium, hoping to catch a glimpse of their cricket heroes who had won their first IPL trophy the previous night. The team landed at the HAL airport at 2.45pm, and were received by Shivakumar. The first felicitation ceremony was organised by the state government at the Vidhana Soudha around 4.30pm.
But by then, pandemonium had already broken out outside the stadium. As crowds swelled ahead of the 6pm event – RCB had announced a victory parade and limited entry free passes – the police closed all gates. At this point, around 250,000 fans had gathered, threatening to burst through the barricades, climbing over cars and climbing trees.
The first deaths were reported around 3.30pm. Only two ambulances were present and 1,318 policemen were deployed, the government told the high court on Thursday. In comparison, around 5,000 were deployed for the 2024 World Cup victory parade in Mumbai.