14-year-old Divyanshi went to Chinnaswamy stadium with her mother and aunt
Class 9 student Divyanshi was beaming when she reached the Chinnaswamy stadium yesterday to participate in the gala celebration of Royal Challengers Bengaluru finally winning the IPL trophy. Accompanied by her mother and aunt, she approached gate no. 15, as lakhs of people jostled with each other to pass through. Then, chaos began. Within minutes, 14-year-old Divyanshi had suffered a serious head injury. Her mother and aunt rushed her to the hospital. Shortly after, she had died, a family outing ending in tragedy.
As Divyanshi's body was brought in, the family was inconsolable. Her father Shivkumar, fighting back tears, told NDTV that Divyanshi, her mother and aunt reached the stadium around 3 pm. "At Gate 15, everybody was pushed, my daughter's head hit an iron (barrier) and she fell," he said, adding that mobile jammers near the stadium disrupted attempts to contact families and ask for help.
Mr Shivkumar said his wife and sister-in-law rushed Divyanshi to a hospital in a cab. "The facilities at the hospital were not good. They didn't even touch my daughter. My wife performed CPR on her."
The heartbroken father slammed the administration for the dismal arrangements at the venue, the lack of planning and the response to the tragedy. "There was no ambulance, police didn't help. We waited in the police station for four hours to file the FIR. Who can wait in such a situation?"
Mr Shivkumar said arrangements are always top-notch for political meetings, but there was hardly any arrangement for an event like this. "They didn't plan anything, they need to estimate how many people can come and what the stadium capacity is. Based on that, they should arrange cops, ambulances, and at least a first aid facility. They would have arranged biryani if it were a political meeting," he said.
Eleven people were killed and 47 others injured in the stampedes at two gates of the Chinnaswamy Stadium yesterday. The victims have been identified AS Divyanshi (13), Doresha (32), Bhoomik (20), Sahana (25), Akshata (27), Manoj (33), Shravan (20), Devi (29), Shivalinga (17) and Chinmayi (19) and Prajwal (20).
Hasty preparations, lack of adequate planning and a massive rush of fans are among the factors that led to the tragedy. Questions have been raised about the state government's decision to organise a reception at the Vidhana Soudha where Governor Thaawar Chand Gehlot, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar felicitated the team. The two venues -- Vidhana Soudha and Chinnaswamy stadium -- created a massive challenge: due to VIP presence at the Assembly complex, a massive number of security personnel had to be deployed there. This led to a limited number of cops tackling lakhs of fans at the Chinnaswamy stadium. The stadium's capacity is around 35,000 and the crowd exceeded 3 lakh.
