(Image source from: RGB)
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) announced a victory parade to Chinnaswamy Stadium "on their own" and "without seeking advice or approval" from the city police, according to a report by the Karnataka government to the High Court about the stampede that resulted in 11 deaths and over 50 injuries. This report was released after a request from the Karnataka High Court. The state had asked the court to keep the report secret, but the court found no legal reason to do so. The state’s report noted that RCB contacted the police on June 3, the same day RCB won the IPL after not winning for 18 years, and informed them about a potential victory parade. This was more of a notice rather than a request for permission as the law necessitates, according to the report. It also mentioned that permissions should be requested at least a week in advance.
"In this situation, no applications as required were submitted to the licensing authorities by the organizer.
Without these required details, the licensing authority could not approve the request. Therefore, the Police Inspector of the Cubbon Park Police Station did not approve the request from KSCA made on June 3, 2025, at around 6:30 PM, due to insufficient information about the expected crowd, arrangements, potential obstacles, and similar aspects for both possible outcomes of the final match, whether RCB won or lost," the report states. It continues that RCB, without consulting the police, posted a message at 7:01 AM the following day on its official social media accounts, "announcing free entry for everyone and inviting the public to join the Victory Parade, which would start at Vidhana Soudha and end at Chinnaswamy Stadium".
Another message was shared at 8 AM, repeating this information. "Later, on June 4, 2025, at 8:55 AM, RCB posted a video of Mr. Virat Kohli, a star player for RCB, on RCB's official account @Rcbtweets on X, where he expressed the team's desire to celebrate this victory with the people of Bengaluru and RCB fans on June 4, 2025, in Bengaluru," the report explains. "Following that, RCB made one more post at 3:14 PM on June 4, 2024, announcing a Victory Parade from Vidhana Soudha to Chinnaswamy Stadium from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM, stating that this victory parade would be followed by celebrations at Chinnaswamy Stadium. For the first time, this post mentioned that free passes (with limited entry) were available on shop.royalchallengers.com, and until that point, there had been no prior information regarding the distribution of passes, suggesting that the event was open to all as indicated in RCB's earlier posts," it adds.
The RCB social media posts attracted a lot of attention and resulted in a total of 4.4 million views as per the report. "This resulted in a very large crowd, with more than 300,000 people showing up. One way to estimate the size of the crowd is by looking at the BMRCL ridership stats from June 4, 2025, which reported about 966,000 people used the service that day (compared to an average of 600,000 on typical days). Therefore, when considering those who walked, took public transport, or arrived by car on June 4, 2025, the estimated crowd would definitely surpass 300,000," it explains. "In addition to the many people at Chinnaswamy Stadium, a large number of supporters lined the roads from HAL Airport (where the team landed) to Taj West End (where they were headed), covering roughly 14 kilometers, to catch a view of the team. This situation required a significant number of police officers to be positioned along the route to control the crowds and ensure safety," the report notes.
It mentions that videos of this unexpected crowd were shared widely on social media. This "further increased the excitement, causing even more people to gather along the route and at the stadium". "This unplanned crowd on the streets led to the urgent need for many police officers to be deployed on the way, in addition to those needed at the stadium and nearby areas. This problem arose from poor planning by the organizers and their failure to provide essential information ahead of time to the relevant authorities," the report adds. It states that around 3 p.m. on June 4, there was a sudden influx of people near Chinnaswamy Stadium. "Approximately 300,000 individuals gathered in this small area, far exceeding the stadium's actual capacity of only 35,000. Such a large crowd gathered at the stadium's entry points after RCB/organizers announced on their official accounts that entry to the event would be open to everyone for free," it mentions.
The report indicates that around 3:14 p.m., RCB and other organizers posted on their social media accounts for the first time and somewhat late, stating that entry to the stadium would require limited passes. This, according to the report, led to "confusion, frustration, and chaos among the crowd who were already present at the stadium and were feeling very emotional.
"As impatient people formed lines at the entrance, things got worse when the organisers and groups responsible for managing the gates did not open them on time and out of sync. This led the crowd to push their way in by breaking open Gate Nos. 1, 2, and 21, all due to the poor management by those in charge," it states. The report notes that gate numbers 02, 2A, 6, 7, 15, 17, 18, 20, and 21 "saw occasional stampedes". "In all the cases mentioned, the police present at the gates quickly responded and effectively worked to regain control and calm the situation," it mentions. The report indicates that the event was not cancelled due to worries that stopping the victory celebrations at the stadium "could lead to violence among the crowd and negatively influence overall safety in the city". "Instead of stopping it entirely, a careful approach was used by allowing the event to continue for a shorter time with more supervision," it says.
"This strategic choice took into account the changing situation on the ground, how the crowd was feeling, the large number of people gathered, and the lack of clear information among them. The threat of major riots both inside the stadium and across Bengaluru required this careful balancing act, focusing on public safety over the immediate cancellation of the event. It is well-understood in situations involving law and order that calling off expected events can greatly anger the crowd and result in widespread violence, as has been seen in many cases where such decisions were made," it adds.
