Bereaved family members of Divyanshi, a victim of the stampede near the Chinnaswamy Cricket Stadium in Bengaluru. Photo: PTI
Bengaluru stampede: Fatal twist for dental student, Bosch employee; kin recount teary tales
Ground Report: The Federal talks to families who lost dear ones in the RCB victory celebrations in Bengaluru
Shravan KT, a second-year student at Ambedkar Dental College and Hospital in Bengaluru, idolised Virat Kohli.
A paying guest in Cox Town, this 21-year-old was one of those happy-go-lucky students who wanted to make it big in the 'medical field'. When Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) won the coveted IPL match on June 3, he was overjoyed and wanted to participate in the victory celebrations and catch a glimpse of his icon Kohli. But that was not to be.
His dream and his family's hopes came crashing down when he was crushed to death in a horrific stampede at Bengaluru's iconic Chinnaswamy Stadium, located in the heart of the bustling city.
Shravan's older brother, an agriculture student in Bengaluru, received a call from his father at 5 pm yesterday, asking him to rush to Bowring Hospital because ''something serious had happened to his brother''.
"When I reached there, I realised he was dead, I was stunned," said Sridhar KT (24 years), choking on his words, trying to explain the cause of his young brother's death.
"It was cruel, my mother fell unconscious when she visited the mortuary last night and she had to be admitted to a hospital," said he said, trying hard to cope with the sudden loss of his younger brother.
Shravan belonged to a Kannadiga joint family from Chintamani, Kuratahalli, around 75 km from Bengaluru.
Shravan KT was a huge Virat Kohli fan
The Ambedkar dental college held a condolence meeting for Shravan and closed the college for the day to mourn the loss of one of its students.
Lack of proper management
Sridhar, in a conversation with The Federal, said his family is not interested in the compensation. "How can Rs 10 lakh bring back my brother's life? My parents are suffering, who can console them?" he asked. Unwilling to blame the players or the RCB management, he agreed that lack of proper management led to the stampede and the chaos.
"They are blaming the players on social media but I would say that we need to be alert, not participate in such events and ensure it does not happen again," he said.
'My bad luck'
Karunakar Shetty, the father of 19-year-old Chinmayi Shetty, who died in the stampede, is inconsolable with grief. "What is the point of trying to fix the blame on who is responsible? We all know who is responsible, it is the people who organised the event," Shetty told The Federal.
"It is not an international match, and just a club match so what is the need for such a frenzy? The Chennai Super Kings or Mumbai Indians have also won before, we did not see this kind of a reaction. It is my bad luck that I had to lose my daughter," he said.
Chinmayi Shetty was not particularly a cricket fan. She was more passionate about Yakshagana and looked forward to her weekly class at the Mangalore association in Kanakapura, her broken-hearted father shared.
A first-year computer science student at the Jyoti Institute of Technology at Kanakapura, she was planning to do an MTech. On that fateful day on June 4, her friends pestered her to join them for the victory celebrations at Chinnaswamy stadium and Chinmayee tagged along. However, she got swept away by the "ocean of humanity" (as one Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) staff described the crowds entering the stadium) and ended up critically injured and had to be rushed to the hospital.
On the way, she was conscious enough to give her friend her father's phone number. Karunakar Shetty got the news that his injured daughter was being rushed to the hospital but when he reached, he was told she was already dead when she was brought in.
Bosch employee too succumbs
Sahana (24), an employee at Bosch too, lost her life. An avid cricket and a Virat Kohli fan, she had eagerly found a spot near the stadium gates, along with her friends, to get into the stadium. But, the hordes that came behind her crushed her to death. Her cousin-brother who talked with The Federal said that her parents are completely devastated.
"We blame the government for not taking any proper action at the right time. They should have waited for a few days for emotions to settle down and organised it in a proper way. The stadium can only take 30,000 people but lakhs of people had descended at the spot," he said bitterly.
The injured tell their tales
Shyamlee was one of the fortunate ones, who was discharged after spending a day in a ward at the Bowring hospital. She is still in a state of shock but was able to recount what happened to her briefly.
"I went for the celebrations but I was standing along with my fiancee and my sister right at the back near gate 6 of the stadium but somehow, we got carried in by a crowd. They pushed so hard I fell and I had people stomping over me and I lost consciousness. It was my fiancee who carried me out and hailed a police van which took us to the hospital," she told The Federal. Now, she is back home hoping to forget what she describes as a 'nightmare'.
Haneef (22), who had a head injury, which required stitches, is recuperating at Bowring Hospital. However, Haneef had a different story to tell. He said that the police struck him on the head twice as he was trying to make his way into the stadium. "They hit me on the head twice as I was trying to enter the stadium and I lost consciousness. My family doesn't know I am here," he said.
One victim lost his limbs, while another suffered eye injuries at this celebratory event, which went completely awry. There is a pall of gloom around Chinnaswamy stadium today but there is no evidence of the huge tragedy that has befallen 11 families except for a mountain of chappals and a Maruti car with a shattered windshield.
A scene outside the stadium the day after. Photo: Keerthi K
The Karnataka State Cricket Association staff seems an anxious and worried lot. They rushed to defend the stampede to visiting journalists, explaining that the crowds were nothing like what they had ever seen. "It was unprecedented, it was an ocean of humanity, we were helpless," said a staffer. "IPL matches have been held here but since it was not a ticketed event lakhs had turned up. The ambulances too were not able to get into the stadium because of the unmanageable crowds," he added.
Next Story