Bengaluru stampede: Panel says no to large events at Chinnaswamy stadium, cites safety concerns
Bengaluru: The Chinnaswamy stadium will have to stop hosting large if the government acts on the report from the Justice John Michael Cunha Commission, which concluded that the stadium’s "design and structure" are "unsuitable and unsafe" for mass gatherings.
The Commission highlighted "systematic limitations" and strongly recommended moving big events to more suitable venues, as reported by Deccan Herald on Wednesday.
The Commission was formed to investigate the June 4 stampede outside the stadium which claimed eleven lives during Royal Challengers Bengaluru's IPL victory celebrations.
The Commission found the stadium's design and structure to be inadequate and unsafe for mass gatherings. It noted that all entry and exit points led directly onto the footpath, and there was no spacious, organised holding area for crowds. As a result, attendees were forced to queue on the footpath or road, blocking pedestrian and vehicle movement, while also giving scope for miscreants to join the crowd aggravating the risk, especially in the absence of proper security.
“Any future venue should adhere to international standards,” the Commission said. Recommendations include building purpose-designed queuing and circulation zones separated from public roads, adequate gates for mass entry and exit, integrated public transport access points and tourist hubs, emergency evacuation plans compliant with international safety norms, sufficient parking, and drop-off infrastructure to handle attendee volumes.
The panel in its report cautioned that until the necessary infrastructure improvements are made, hosting high-attendance events at the Chinnaswamy stadium would pose unacceptable risks to public safety, urban mobility, and emergency preparedness.
The panel has recommended action against KSCA chief Raghuram Bhat, ex-secretary A. Shankar, ex-treasurer E.S. Jairam, RCB vice-president Rajesh Menon, DNA Entertainment Networks MD T. Venkat Vardhan and VP Sunil Mathur, police officers B. Dayananda, Vikash Kumar Vikash, Shekhar H. Tekkannavar, C. Balakrishna and A.K. Girish, added the report.
The state government is expected to discuss the recommendations in the next Cabinet meeting.
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NEET-UG: 2 more held, role of several NTA officers under scanner; CBI focussing on source of leak
New Delhi (PTI): The CBI has arrested two more persons in connection with the NEET (UG) paper-leak case, with the role of several officers of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and other organisations, who had access to the printing press where the papers were printed, coming under the scanner, officials said on Thursday.
The agency has arrested Dhananjay Lokhanda from Ahilyanagar and Manisha Waghmare from Pune and conducted searches at 14 locations across the country in the last 24 hours, they said.
The CBI is focussing on identifying the source of the leak that has caused massive disappointment to lakhs of aspirants eyeing a seat in undergraduate medical courses, which are allotted after the highly-competitive examination, the officials said.
According to the CBI probe so far, the involvement of public servants in the leak cannot be ruled out.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested three individuals from Jaipur -- Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal and Dinesh Biwal -- along with Yash Yadav from Gurugram and Shubham Khairnar from Nashik.
Khairnar was in touch with Yadav and informed him in April that Mangilal Biwal was ready to pay Rs 10-12 lakh for arranging leaked NEET (UG) 2026 questions for his younger son.
Khairnar allegedly provided 500 to 600 questions from the leaked paper to Yadav, the officials said, adding that the questions could have helped score enough marks to get a seat in a reputed medical college.
Mangilal Biwal allegedly procured the paper from Yadav, who was known to his elder son Vikas Biwal from an NEET coaching in Rajasthan's Sikar. The deal between Mangilal Biwal and Yadav was for Rs 10 lakh, if 150 questions from the question bank matched with those in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) paper, the officials said.
Mangilal Biwal shared the paper with his son and further distributed it among relatives.
Yadav also told Vikas Biwal to find additional candidates for the questions to recover some of the money that he had spent on getting those, the officials said.
An analysis of digital devices has given the agency incriminating chats, leaked question papers and other digital evidence. The CBI will subject the devices to a forensic examination to get the deleted data, the officials said.
The federal agency has registered an FIR and formed teams to probe the alleged NEET (UG) paper leak that resulted in the cancellation of the exam held on May 3.
The NEET (UG) 2026 was conducted across 551 Indian cities and at 14 overseas centres. Nearly 23 lakh candidates had registered for the test, which was administered by the NTA at centres across the country.
According to the NTA, information regarding alleged malpractice was received on the evening of May 7, four days after the examination was held. The NTA said the inputs were escalated to central agencies the following morning for "independent verification and necessary action".
The Rajasthan Police's Special Operations Group (SOG) has claimed that a "guess paper" for chemistry, allegedly circulated among students ahead of the examination, had approximately 410 questions, including roughly 120 that appeared in the test.
