The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has cancelled the Karnataka government's suspension order against senior IPS officer Vikash Kumar Vikash, who was targeted in the aftermath of a stampede that killed 11 people here last month. The June 4 tragedy outside M Chinnaswamy stadium killed 11 people and invited sharp criticism regarding planning and crowd management.
Vikash had approached the tribunal challenging the government's June 5 suspension order, which also mentioned then Bengaluru Police Commissioner B Dayananda and DCP Shekar H Tekkannavar.
The Bengaluru bench of the tribunal involving Justice BK Shrivastava and administrative member Santhosh Mehra, had reserved its order on June 24.
The officer's suspension was reserved on Tuesday. Senior advocate Dhyan Chinappa, said: "The petition was granted by the tribunal and suspension was revoked, underscoring that he is eligible for every benefit according to service rules." The CAT also mentioned that this could be applicable for the cases against Dayananda and Tekkannavar, which suggests their probable reinstatement.
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After the incident, CM suspended Commissioner of Police of Bengaluru city Dayananda, Additional Commissioner of Police Vikash Kumar Vikash, who was responsible for the stadium, Deputy Commissioner of Police of central division Shekhar H Tekkannavar, Assistant Commissioner of Police C Balakrishna, and Circle Police Inspector of the Cubbon Park Police station AK Girish.
The three IPS officers had been suspended by the government under the All India Services (Discipline & Appeal) Rules, 1969; while action against the ACP and PI was initiated under the Karnataka State Police (Disciplinary Proceedings) Rules, 1965.
The CEO of RCB had informed the Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru City on June 3 that there would be a victory parade and celebrations on June 4, as per the suspension order. The office of Police Commissioner did not provide a written communication to the organisers, denying permission citing insufficient time to prepare for such a big event.
It stated that the RCB and Cricket Association have posted on Twitter regarding celebrations and have invited supporters to Chinnaswamy stadium without following the regular practice of distributing tickets or passes. In spite of being conscious about the developments and anticipation of a record turnout of cricket enthusiasts by the police, no measures were adopted to either conduct the event systematically at the stadium or provide proper information to the public to adopt necessary precautions for safety or deploy extra Police personnel for effective crowd control.
Additionally, the matter was not raised with the top leadership for the much-needed guidance and advice on this issue. Consequently, the issue got out of hand and caused much anguish, loss of valuable life and shame to the Government, it added.
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