Frustrated elements behind shifting of matches: Acharya

Karnataka home minister V S Acharya today expressed his displeasure over the shifting of IPL (Indian Premier League) semifinal matches to Mumbai by the organisers due to security fears.

He said, minor incidents like detection of crude bombs could not be the only reason for shifting IPL semifinals to Mumbai.

“We had assured the organisers of all security arrangements. There was no proper bomb found at the stadium. There were some innocuous material found, which is ‘unexplodable’ and waste material like salt, etc., We are conducting thorough investigation and our police officials have adhered to security checklist,” Acharya told reporters, here today.

He said the government does not think the IPL fixtures have been shifted due to security threats alone. “There appears to be some other reason, which we will know once investigations are over,” Acharya said adding “some frustrated elements could have acted behind the shifting of matches”.

He also ruled out any connection with the incidents that occured on July 25, 2008, when there were incidents of crude bomb blasts in the city.

Two bombs had exploded at Chinnaswamy stadium barely 45 minutes before the start of an IPL match between Royal Challengers, Bangalore, and Mumbai Indians on April 17, 2010, leaving around 14 persons including security men injured. Subsequently, the police also found two live bombs on Sunday around the stadium.