‘It would be ‘someone else’, not the police officers, who have to be held accountable for stampede’

Everyone knows who went to the airport to welcome RCB cricket players, who attended the official facilitation ceremony on the steps of Vidhana Soudha and also at M. Chinnaswamy stadium, and it would be ‘someone else’, not the police, who have to be held accountable for the stampede occurred outside the stadium, it was argued before the High Court of Karnataka on behalf of IPS officer Vikash Kumar Vikash on Friday.

These submissions were made before a Division Bench comprising Justice S.G. Pandit and Justice T.M. Nadaf during the hearing of an appeal filed by the State government, which had questioned the Central Administrative Tribunal’s July 1 verdict of quashing the government’s June 5 order of suspending Mr. Vikash Kumar, who was holding the post of Additional Commissioner of Police (West) on the day of stampede.

Contradictory stand

It was pointed out to the court that the government has taken a ‘contradictory stand’ as it has, on the one hand, justified the action of suspending senior police officers, and on the other hand, it has defended the safety and security measures taken by police authorities during June 4 victory celebration of RCB team, in the two separate proceedings before the court.

Senior advocate Dhyan Chinnappa, appearing for Mr. Vikash Kumar, pointed out that the State government, in its status report submitted to the court in the suo motu PIL proceedings, has explained the elaborate security and traffic arrangements made by the city police, but it is arguing contrary when it comes to the issue of suspension of the police officers.

Every police officer and personnel were on the streets on June 3 and June 4 in connection with the RCB’s victory celebrations, and it was none other than the then city Police Commissioner who was handling the security along with other police officers, Mr. Chinnappa pointed out.

Sand inquiry

As the government had told the court in its status report that it took action of suspension against senior police officers ‘recognising the need for accountability within the law enforcement hierarchy’, Mr. Chinnppa said an IPS officer cannot be suspended holding accountable for incident like stampede sans any enquiry or material.