IPS officer Vikash Kumar Vikash’s counsel, Senior Advocate Dhyan Chinappa, told the Karnataka High Court Friday that the state government’s stand on the issue of suspension of IPS officers in the wake of the June 4 Bengaluru stadium stampede was a case of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”
He was referring to prior statements of the government regarding the steps it had taken for the event, in contrast with questions raised by the state in the previous hearing on Thursday on why the police took security steps in an event without permission.
The statements were made in the context of the government’s appeal against the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) order quashing the suspension of several IPS officers, which is currently being heard by a bench consisting of Justices T M Nadaf and S G Pandit.
In the previous hearing this Thursday, the state counsel had referred to the police as having acted as “servants of RCB (Royal Challengers Bengaluru” in making security arrangements for the June 4 event near Chinnaswamy stadium, also questioning why this was done instead of prohibiting the event when there was no official permission.
Arguing for the other side, Chinappa had raised questions regarding the procedure of the suspension and whether it was being done in a “punitive” manner, which would not be permissible under existing regulations, noting that the IPS officers had been scapegoats in the incident.
At the outset of Friday’s submissions, Chinappa stated that it would be “unfortunate” if the statement that the police had behaved as “servants” was the stand of the state rather than the argument of the counsel.
Regarding the suspension, he said, “First you say I want to find out the causes… pending finding the causes there is dereliction of duty? If there was material the government could have said this is the basis on which we have come to a conclusion, there is dereliction of duty, we are suspending.”
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Chinappa added that the statement made in the report submitted to the high court regarding “accountability” indicated that the suspension was done as a punishment.
Referring to the report on the stampede filed before the high court by the state, he added, “How can they turn around and say… who asked them to do bandobast, they are servants of RCB… But is that the stand of the Government before this court?”
While concluding his submissions for the day, Chinappa stated, “It is one thing if the officers were not there at the site, if they were sleeping on duty… it is another thing when they were there, managing the crowd, and an incident occurred.”
Chinappa’s arguments on behalf of IPS officer Vikash are set to conclude on Monday (July 21).
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Eleven people died and several more were injured in the stampede outside the Bengaluru cricket stadium during an event called to celebrate the maiden Indian Premier League trophy win for RCB.