CID questions 2 former cricket body officials

The Karnataka high court on Thursday granted bail to Nikhil Sosale, head of marketing at Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), and three others, observing that they were all arrested illegally, without any credible evidence or investigation linking them to the June 4 crush at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru that killed 11 people and injured over 50 others.

- Ayesha Arvind

BENGALURU:

Justice SR Krishna Kumar said the police "had neither conducted any investigation nor produced any credible material" to show they had reason to believe that Sosale and the other petitioners were involved in the alleged offences at the time of their arrest.

The judge further said that merely holding top positions in the organisations was not enough to justify the petitioners' arrest, especially when they were not named in the FIRs and no material was presented to establish their direct involvement in the incident.

Besides Sosale, the court granted bail to Sunil Mathew, Kiran Kumar S, and Shamant NP Mavinakere, all employees of the event management company DNA Entertainment Networks, who were also arrested in the same case. The court directed that all four be released from judicial custody upon surrendering their passports.