DNA Entertainment Networks, the event organiser for the ill-fated Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) victory celebration, has moved the Karnataka High Court challenging the findings of a judicial commission that held it partly responsible for the tragic stampede outside Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy Stadium on June 4, which left 11 people dead.
The judicial commission, led by retired High Court judge Justice John Michael D’Cunha, was constituted by the Karnataka government to probe the incident. In its report submitted earlier this week, the commission blamed the “reckless” conduct of multiple parties, including DNA, RCB, the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), and certain police officials, for poor crowd control that allegedly led to the stampede at the stadium gates.
The report recommended legal action against the organisers for inadequate planning and failure to regulate the crowd. However, DNA has strongly refuted these findings, claiming the responsibility for managing crowds outside the stadium lay solely with the state authorities, especially the police.
On Friday, DNA’s legal team mentioned the matter before a division bench of Justices Jayant Banerjee and S.G. Pandit, seeking an urgent hearing. The court agreed to take up the petition on July 28.
In its plea, DNA raised multiple objections, alleging serious procedural lapses by the commission. The company claimed it had not received a copy of the report before it was leaked to the press, calling the move a violation of natural justice. “The fact that the impugned Report is leaked to the press but not given to the Petitioner till date makes it clear that the Respondents have acted in a pre-planned manner with a vendetta,” the petition stated.
DNA further alleged that its directors, Venkata Varadhana Thimmaiah and Sunil Mathew, were denied the right to cross-examine witnesses — a right guaranteed under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952. It also claimed that their testimonies before the commission were inaccurately recorded and that repeated requests for corrections were ignored.
Calling the inquiry an “eyewash” intended to “scapegoat” the company, DNA argued that the commission rushed its report to pacify public outrage and shift blame away from the state machinery.
