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News Topical, Digital Desk : 11 people lost their lives in the stampede that took place outside M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on June 4. Now the Karnataka High Court has taken a tough stand in this matter. On Thursday, the court asked the state government how justified was it to suspend five policemen for this accident? The court raised the question whether it would not be enough to transfer these officers to another place?
The High Court bench of Justice S.G. Pandit and T.M. Nadaf asked the government for a solid reason behind this suspension. The court said that the government will have to prove whether the decision of suspension was correct or not. This came to light when the Karnataka government challenged the decision of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) dated July 1. In this decision, the suspension of IPS officer Vikas Kumar Vikas was revoked.
There was an order to withdraw the suspension of all the officers
The tribunal had termed Vikas' suspension as "mechanical" and without any concrete evidence and ordered his immediate reinstatement. Not only this, the tribunal suggested that the other four suspended officers, including the then Police Commissioner B. Dayanand, should also be given relief. But the government challenged this decision in the High Court.
Advocate General Shashi Kiran Shetty told the court that the tribunal took a hasty decision and recommended relief to four officers who were not even parties to the case.
Shetty claimed that he had evidence that these five officers were guilty of negligence in their duty. He appealed to the court to stay the tribunal's order.
Shetty told the court that after the tribunal's order of July 1, Vikas joined duty on July 2 wearing a uniform without any formal order. On this, the High Court showed strictness and said that Vikas should not make any haste till the next hearing. The court has fixed the next hearing of this case on July 9.
Vikas's lawyer, senior advocate Dhanya Chinnappa, assured the court that his client would not take any action until the next hearing. Vikas had claimed in the tribunal that he was not responsible for the accident as Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) had not informed the police about the IPL victory parade in advance.
RCB's mistake or police's failure?
The tribunal had said in its decision that RCB announced the parade and celebration on Instagram without police permission, after which a huge crowd reached the stadium. According to the tribunal, RCB neither took permission from the police nor did any coordination. 11 people died in this accident, after which five policemen including Vikas were suspended on June 5.
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