BENGALURU: Indian police arrested two people including a senior executive at IPL-winning cricket team Royal Challengers Bengaluru after 11 fans were crushed to death during victory celebrations, local media reported Friday.
Hundreds of thousands had packed the streets in the southern tech city Bengaluru on Wednesday to welcome home their hero Virat Kohli and his RCB team-mates after they beat Punjab Kings in a thrilling final of the Indian Premier League.
But the euphoria of the vast crowds ended in disaster when 11 mainly young fans died in a stampede near the city’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, where the players were parading the trophy.
Media outlet India Today said Friday that Nikhil Sosale, RCB’s head of marketing, was arrested at the Bengaluru airport.
The Indian Express newspaper reported Sosale was arrested, along with an executive from the event management company DNA.
The reported arrests come hours after Karnataka state’s Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that “legal action has been taken against the representatives of RCB”, as well as the event organisers, and the state’s cricket association.
Siddaramaiah said a first information report, which marks the start of a police investigation, had been “registered against them”.
Local media reported that the charges include culpable homicide, not amounting to murder, among others.
Siddaramaiah, who only uses one name, said top police officers in Bengaluru, including the city’s police commissioner, have been suspended.
“These officers appear to be irresponsible and negligent, and it has been decided to suspend them,“ Siddaramaiah said.
The dead were mostly young fans, aged between 14 and 29, who were among a sea of people who had poured onto the streets to catch a glimpse of their heroes.
RCB offered financial aid of $11,655 to each family of those killed, calling the deaths “unfortunate”.
Indian media have widely reported the team earned $2.3 million in prize money alone for taking the title on Wednesday.
Kohli, who top-scored in the final, said he was “at a loss for words” after celebrations of a dream IPL crown turned to tragedy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the accident “absolutely heartrending”.
Siddaramaiah said earlier that the stadium had a capacity of “only 35,000 people, but 200,000-300,000 people came”.
