Mysuru/Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday defended the decision to go ahead with the RCB victory celebration in front of Vidhana Soudha, saying no untoward incident happened there. The CM’s reaction came to the DCP (Vidhana Soudha security) letter written before the event warning against holding felicitations at Vidhana Soudha “hastily”, surfaced now.

The CM, however, clarified that the event at Vidhana Soudha was organised by the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), and that he attended the programme as he was invited. On June 4, along with a felicitation to the RCB on IPL victory at Vidhana Soudha, a celebration was also organised at the Chinnaswamy cricket stadium, where a large number of people thronged, leading to stampede, in which eleven people died and 56 were injured.

A letter by DCP (Vidhana Soudha security) on June 4 to Secretary to the government, Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR), warning against organising the event hastily, and also highlighting that they did not have enough personnel to organise security for such an event, where a large number of people would gather, at short notice, has surfaced.

The letter was in response to DPAR seeking his opinion on holding the felicitation event on the grand stairs of the Vidhana Soudha to honour the RCB players. “The RCB cricket team has a fan following across the country. Organising the event in a hurry on the grand stairs of Vidhana Soudha will lead to lakhs of cricket fans arriving at Vidhana Soudha. This will lead to problems in bandobast since there is a shortage of officers/personnel in Vidhana Soudha security division,” the DCP’s letter said. As the RCB fan following is huge, police personnel from outside the city will be required for bandobast and it will require time, he further said, both law and order and the traffic police will have to coordinate for a mega event like this and there is not enough time.