The Karnataka government has blamed Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) for a tragic stampede that killed 11 people outside M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on June 4. In a report to the High Court, officials said RCB, DNA Networks, and Karnataka State Cricket Association organised victory celebrations without police permission.The state’s status report, submitted on June 12 and disclosed by court order on July 8, highlighted that RCB went ahead with promotional activities despite being denied permission. They even used Virat Kohli’s video clip to promote the event.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!According to officials, KSCA’s CEO had informed the Cubbon Park Police Station about a potential victory parade on June 3 evening. The police rejected the request, citing lack of details about crowd management and the short notice.Despite the denial, RCB took to social media early morning on June 4. They announced a victory parade from Vidhana Soudha to Chinnaswamy Stadium. At 8:55 AM, they shared Virat Kohli’s video message about celebrating with Bengaluru fans.At 8.55am, RCB posted a video featuring Virat Kohli on its official handle @RCBtweets, in which he said the team “intends to celebrate this victory with the people of Bengaluru and RCB fans on 04.06.2025 after the team returns to Bengaluru.”Later, at 3:14pm, another post was made announcing the timing of the parade—from 5:00pm to 6:00pm—followed by celebrations inside the stadium. It was only in this post that RCB mentioned limited free passes were available at shop.royalchallengers.com.The situation worsened when RCB posted the parade timings, mentioning limited free passes on their website. By then, large crowds had already gathered. The government noted the massive social media impact of these posts, with the first announcement getting 1.6 million views, followed by 426,000, 760,000, and 1.7 million views for subsequent posts.
