- By Vishal Pushkar
- Wed, 04 Jun 2025 11:29 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Chinnaswamy Stadium Stampede: On Wednesday, the victory celebrations of Royal Challengers Bengaluru's maiden IPL triumph in 18 years was marred by death of 11 fans, who were part of more than 100,000 people desperate to catch a glimpse of Virat Kohli more than anyone else. The former RCB captain took to social media to mourn the loss of lives during the tragic incident.
“At a loss for words. Absolutely gutted,” Virat Kohli wrote on Instagram.
Bollywood actor and Kohli's wife Anushka Sharma, also shared RCB's official statement. In the post, she used heartbreak emojis.
The RCB management and the Karnataka government organised a victory celebration at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium but the local authorities didn't envisage the massive turnout which led to a stampede, killing 11 people.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced that 11 had died and 33 were injured "due to stampede near Chinnaswamy Stadium."
"More than 2-3 lakh people came near Chinnaswamy Stadium, no one expected this crowd," Siddaramaiah said.
"Most of deceased in RCB celebrations are youth. Government will provide Rs 10 lakh compensation to kin of deceased," he added, while declaring that there will be a magisterial inquiry into the incident.
"Crowd was uncontrollable, police was finding it difficult, so we had to stop procession," Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said while speaking about the tragedy because of which a planned victory parade could not take place.
The BCCI said the turn of events was shocking and the organisers should have been better-prepared.
"It's most unfortunate, organisers should have planned RCB's IPL-winning celebrations better," BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia told PTI.
"When one organises a victory celebration of this magnitude, proper precautions and security measures need to be taken," he added.
Similar sentiments were expressed by IPL chairman Arun Dhumal, who said "Whatever inquiry that needs to be done, the concerned authorities will do that. It was not a BCCI event. It is sad and tragic."