Nearly three months after the tragic stampede outside Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium, which claimed 11 lives and left over 50 injured, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Thursday released a heartfelt message acknowledging the grief and pain surrounding the incident.
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Taking to social media platform X, the IPL franchise wrote: “The Silence wasn’t Absence. It was Grief. This space was once filled with energy, memories and moments that you enjoyed the most. But June 4th changed everything. That day broke our hearts, and the silence since then has been our way of holding space. In that silence, we’ve been grieving, listening, learning.”
The note explained that RCB had deliberately refrained from posting celebratory content since the incident, adding that the tragedy had prompted the franchise to reflect and build something more meaningful for its community. “That’s how RC came to life. It grew out of a need to honour, to heal, and to stand beside our fans… We return to this space today, not with celebration but with care — to share, to stand with you, to walk forward, together,” the post read.
The June 4 stampede occurred when an unprecedented crowd of nearly three lakh people gathered outside the stadium to participate in RCB’s victory parade following their maiden IPL trophy win.
{{/usCountry}}The June 4 stampede occurred when an unprecedented crowd of nearly three lakh people gathered outside the stadium to participate in RCB’s victory parade following their maiden IPL trophy win.
{{/usCountry}}In July, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), while hearing the case, held RCB “responsible” for drawing the massive, unregulated crowd. The bench noted that the franchise had “unilaterally” announced the celebrations on social media without seeking consent or permission from the police or civic authorities.
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Defending the police, the tribunal remarked that officers were “human beings, not magicians” who could not have managed such overwhelming numbers without prior coordination. It also pointed out that neither RCB nor its event management partner, DNA Entertainment Network Pvt Ltd, followed mandatory procedures for crowd control.
The Justice John Michael Cunha Commission, set up by the Karnataka government to probe the incident, has since deemed the M Chinnaswamy Stadium “unsuitable and unsafe” for large-scale public gatherings
Initially, the state government had suspended four senior police officers for alleged lapses in crowd management. However, on July 28, their suspensions were revoked, with the officers reinstated to duty pending disciplinary proceedings. Those reinstated include Additional Director General of Police B Dayananda, IPS officer Shekar H Tekkannavar, DySP C Balakrishna, and Inspector AK Girish.