The Bengaluru Police on Friday morning arrested Nikhil Sosale from the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) management regarding the stampede incident, which happened during the franchise’s maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) win celebrations on Wednesday. The police also arrested Sunil Mathew of the event management company DNA.
Nikhil Sosale is the head of marketing and revenue for RCB at Diageo India. He was taken into custody by the cops at the Bengaluru when he was reportedly flying out to Mumbai.
According to India Today, the police have also detained three staff members of DNA Entertainment Networks Pvt. Ltd.
Speaking about Sosale, he was spotted in every RCB IPL game in the 2025 season. On quite a few occasions, he was seen sitting alongside Virat Kohli’s wife Anushka Sharma in the stands.
Sosale has been associated with the franchise since its formative years. According to LinkedIn, he leads the design, strategy, and delivery of the business and marketing charter of the leading brand and commercial program in the IPL.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Sosale is a Double Major in Business from James Cook University. He pursued the degree from 2008 to 2010.
Nikhil Sosale is married to Malvika Nayak, who heads Innoz Technologies Pvt.Ltd’s business development and partnerships department. Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma have often been spotted hanging out with Nikhil and Malvika.
Also Read: RCB show solidarity in fresh statement on stampede tragedy
The RCB marketing head has a private Instagram profile with 637 followers. Both Virat and Anushka follow him on the uber-popular platform.
All you need to know about the Bengaluru stampede
A stampede outside the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru during RCB’s victory celebrations killed 11 and injured 33 on Wednesday. A day after, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah asked for the arrests of the officials of RCB, DNA and Karnataka State Cricket Association.
The state government also confirmed the suspension of several top police officials, including Bengaluru Police Commissioner B Dayananda.
A one-man judicial commission has also been formed to investigate the case. It is headed by retired Karnataka High Court judge Justice Michael D’Cunha.
The commission has been asked to report in 30 days. In addition, the state’s IGP and DGP were asked to immediately arrest the RCB representative, DNA event managers, and the person representing KSCA.
RCB won the IPL 2025 title on Tuesday. They ended their trophy drought by winning the tournament after beating the Punjab Kings in the summit clash at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
Following this victory, a parade was announced in Bengaluru. The Bengaluru Police initially denied permission for the same. However, at 3 PM in the afternoon, RCB posted on social media that the parade would take place from the Vidhana Soudha to the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
RCB are coping a lot of criticism for continuing the celebrations inside the stadium despite a stampede taking place outside the venue.
On Thursday, RCB announced financial aid for all the 11 families that lost someone from their household in the stampede. The franchise have also created an ‘RCB Cares’ fund to support the 33 others injured.