Bengaluru, June 7 -- Four executives, one from Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and three from an event management firm, were arrested and chief minister Siddaramaiah's political secretary was ousted on Friday as the Karnataka government moved to fend off criticism over the deaths of 11 fans during chaotic celebrations for RCB's Indian Premier League (IPL) title victory earlier this week. The police arrested Nikhil Sosale, in charge of RCB's marketing and revenue - who moved the Karnataka high court against the action - and DNA Entertainment Private Limited executives Sunil Mathew, Kiran Kumar and Sumanth R. Police had booked RCB, DNA and as well as the state cricket body for culpable homicide, unlawful assembly and assault on Thursday. Another first information report (FIR) was filed against the three organisations following a complaint by Rohan Gomes , 25, who survived the chaos, which also injured 56. However, the high court restrained state police from taking coercive action against top officials of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA). As the political backlash grew, the Congress government removed chief minister Siddaramaiah's political secretary K Govindaraj and also transferred additional director general of police (ADGP), intelligence, Hemant Nimbalkar on Friday. The government did not reveal the reasons for their removal. However, people aware of the matter said Govindaraj was removed followed criticism of his reported involvement in the event. Govindaraj denied any involvement ahead of his removal. The Opposition BJP and the JD(S) jointly lashed out at the Congress government, saying police officers were being made the "scapegoats" for the tragedy and alleging that the entire responsibility for the incident lies with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar. Karnataka BJP general secretary P Rajeev said he has filed a police complaint seeking legal action against Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar and Home Minister G Parameshwara. Shivakumar accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of "politicising dead bodies", as the opposition party in the state blamed the government for the mayhem. "They (opposition) are trying to do politics over dead bodies. We are not doing it. We have sincerity....what do they have to target me? In what way am I responsible?" he said. The tragedy occurred on Wednesday afternoon as hundreds of thousands of people thronged the Chinnaswamy stadium. The RCB team landed at the HAL airport at 2.45pm, and were received by Shivakumar. The first felicitation ceremony was organised by the state government at the Vidhana Soudha around 4.30pm. By then, pandemonium had already broken out outside the stadium. As crowds swelled ahead of the 6pm event - RCB had announced a victory parade and limited entry free passes - the police closed all gates. At this point, around 250,000 fans had gathered, threatening to burst through the barricades, climbing over cars and climbing trees. The 11 fans, mainly students or young IT professionals, died after they were caught in the crush at the gates . The first deaths were reported around 3.30pm.Only two ambulances were present and 1,318 policemen were deployed, the government told the high court on Thursday. In comparison, around 5,000 were deployed for the 2024 World Cup victory parade in Mumbai. The crush led to four deaths at Gate 7, two at Gate 6, one at Gate 1, and four more between Gates 17 and 21, the government told the court. At a press conference on Thursday, Siddaramaiah ordered the arrests of representatives of the organisations booked by police, announced a judicial probe and said that five police officers, including the city's top cop B Dayananda, were suspended. On Friday evening, a city court in Bengaluru sent the four arrested men to 14 days' judicial custody. The high court will hear Sosale's plea challenging his arrest on June 9. "A few arrests have been made. Ultimately, the case has to go to CID. So before that, whatever legal formalities have to be done by our team are being done," Bengaluru's new police commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh said. Gomes, 25, in his complaint, said that he reached Gate 17 after seeing social media posts by RCB indicating that the tickets will be issued at the venue and that entry would be allowed without a ticket. He also alleged that RCB publicised a victory parade in an open-top bus. Sosale's lawyers, in his petition, argued that he was detained solely on the basis of an oral directive from the chief minister, without a preliminary inquiry or investigation. "The Petitioner's arrest is motivated and an attempt to shift the blame of the tragedy to RCSPL and its officials," the plea said, referring to Royal Challengers Sports Private Limited, the company that owns the franchise. KSCA, meanwhile, argued that it had no operational role in the event and merely rented the stadium to RCB's management company. It claimed RCB, through DNA, bore full responsibility for managing the entry and exit gates. It further alleged that the cricket body was being scapegoated to deflect criticism away from government leaders who had facilitated a separate ceremony at Vidhana Soudha earlier in the day. Granting KSCA officials interim protection from arrest till June 16, Karnataka high court judge justice SR Krishna Kumar directed that no "precipitative action" be taken against KSCA president Raghuram Bhat, secretary A Shankar and treasurer ES Jairam, who are among the accused named in one of FIRs registered by police over the tragedy. The court however, directed the petitioners to cooperate with the ongoing investigation, and barred them from leaving its jurisdiction....