Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB)’s IPL 2025 title-winning celebrations turned awry on Wednesday when at least 11 people died and another 50 were injured in a massive stampede outside the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. The stampede had occurred amidst a huge crowd gathered to attend a bus parade, which had been planned just hours after the team had beaten Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the final on Tuesday. In light of the incident, four RCB officials have been arrested, with RCB marketing and revenue chief Nikhil Sosale among them.

According to the police, Sosale was on his way to Mumbai when he was arrested from Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru, at around 6.30 am on Friday. On Thursday, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had ordered the arrest of RCB representatives after a First Information Report (FIR) was registered, including culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Sosale, as well as three members of the event management company DNA Entertainment Private Limited, have been arrested.

But who exactly is Nikhil Sosale?

As per his LinkedIn profile, Sosale, born on August 18, 1986, has been the marketing and revenue head of RCB for nearly two years now. Sosale is originally an employee of Diageo India, which operates United Spirits Limited (USL), the owners of RCB.

USL became the full-time owners of RCB following the departure of former owner Vijay Mallya.

Coming back to Sosale, he is seemingly in charge of the design and strategy behind the RCB brand. RCB is undoubtedly one of the most popular teams in the IPL.

Based in Bengaluru, Sosale has been with Diageo for 13 years, where he seems to have worked closely with the franchise throughout. During this period, Sosale has also been head of business partnerships at RCB. Often, he can be seen alongside Virat Kohli‘s wife Anushka Sharma in the RCB private boxes. He is also followed on Instagram by Kohli.

Sosale is a Double Major from James Cook University in Queensland, Australia.

Having been involved with RCB’s marketing and business strategy for several years, it is possible that Sosale had some role to play in the arrangement and conduct of a bus parade to celebrate the franchise winning its first-ever IPL title. He is also expected to have played a role in communication between the players and franchise officials. Notably, RCB continued celebrations within the M. Chinaswamy Stadium on Wednesday, despite the events that had occurred outside it.

Eventually, the celebration programme was supposedly shortened, with RCB releasing a statement acknowledging the stampede deaths several hours after the incident on Wednesday.

Police said the arrests were made during an overnight operation carried out by the Central Crime Branch under the leadership of Deputy Commissioner of Police Akshay. The accused are likely to be handed over to the Crime Investigation Department today.