Will not either publish or circulate Cunha Commission’s report on stampede for now, A-G gives undertaking to Karnataka High Court  

The State government on Tuesday gave an undertaking to the High Court of Karnataka that it would neither publish nor circulate the John Michael Cunha Commission report on the stampede outside M. Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru on June 4.

State Advocate-General gave this assurance before a Division Bench, comprising Justice Jayant Banerji and Justice Umesh M. Adiga, during the hearing on a petition filed by DNA Entertainment Networks Pvt. Ltd., the event management partner of Royal Challengers Sports Pvt. Ltd., which owns Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).

DNA had filed the petition complaining that the commission violated the provisions of the Commissions of Inquiry Act (CoI Act), 1952, in the procedure adopted in conducting the inquiry, while contending that the commission had not given an opportunity to DNA to cross-examine witnesses.

While it has been alleged in the petition that the government had leaked the commission’s report to the media, the A-G told the court the government had nothing to do with reports in the media.

In response to A-G Shashi Kiran Shetty’s undertaking, senior advocate B.K. Sampath Kumar, appearing for DNA, told the Bench that the government, while refusing to give a copy of the commission’s report to DNA, had responded in writing that the report of the commission was already given to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which is probing the stampede incident based on three First information Reports registered on June 5.

However, the A-G said that the CID has been investigating the stampede incident from June.

Meanwhile, the Bench orally remarked that “some observations in the commission’s report are shocking... they are all not hardened criminals... we are not making any observations at this stage”, while adjourning hearing on the petition till September 4 as the A-G stated that the government would file its written objection to the petition.

Earlier, the Bench posed some questions to the A-G about certain differences in the procedure followed by the commission and the provisions in the Act.