Karur Stampede: Vijay Blamed For Arriving Late But Not Named In FIR; 'Deliberate Display Of Power'

Chennai: Actor-politician Vijay’s deliberate late entry at the public rally in Tamil Nadu’s Karur on Saturday has been blamed for the horrible stampede that killed 41 people.

However, the FIR has not named the popular star of Tamil film industry, founder of TVK party with ambitions of winning next year’s Assembly elections.

Criminal cases have been initiated against three party leaders — district secretary Mathiyazhagan, state general secretary Bushi Anand and state joint secretary CTR Nirmal Kumar. They have been booked under Sections 105, 110, 125 (b), and 223 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Act, along with Section 3 of the Tamil Nadu Public Property Act.

According to the FIR accessed by India Today, TVK district secretary Mathiyazhagan had sought permission for 10,000 attendees, but the crowd swelled to over 25,000 over the evening as more and more people came to know about the Tamil superstar’s presence in their town. His arrival was delayed deliberately so that a larger crowd could gather, it has been alleged.

“Instead of conducting the event on time, Vijay’s entry into Karur was delayed by four hours to show a massive crowd as a political statement, leading to thousands of people standing in the sun and getting exhausted. Due to this, 11 died in the stampede while several are admitted to hospital due to critical injury,” the FIR read.

The police report stated that TVK chief Vijay made a ‘deliberate display of political power’, NDTV reported.

The FIR said the rally was originally scheduled to start at 9 am, and a large crowd had assembled by 11 am.

Police said Vijay was due to speak around noon, his arrival kept getting pushed back – from 3 pm to ultimately 7 pm to build ‘unnecessary expectations’.

Unscheduled stops, unplanned roadshows

The bus Vijay was travelling in made multiple unscheduled stops, which turned out to be unplanned roadshows for which no permission was sought. Traffic was disrupted, and TVK leaders also ignored warnings about lack of food, water and facilities for the crowd.

Despite police providing support, the party workers and volunteers could not manage the crowd which kept increasing as people climbed trees and moved into makeshift roadside shelters, which collapsed, trapping those who were standing below and leading to suffocation.

Sitharaman visits site

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman visited the site of the tragic stampede, and interacted with local people and officials.

Sitharaman, accompanied by L Murugan, Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs, and MLA Vanathi, later met the injured victims undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College Hospital in Karur.

According to a statement from Sitharaman’s office, she inquired about their well-being and also interacted with doctors on the treatment being provided to the people.

Vijay’s party seeks CBI probe

The TVK has blamed the stampede on a ‘conspiracy’ orchestrated by the ruling DMK, and has urged the Madras High Court to immediately hand over the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to ensure an impartial investigation, along with the seizure of CCTV footage around the rally venue.

NDTV quoted TVK’s lawyer as saying a petition had been filed asking the Madras High Court to either set up a special team to investigate the stampede or transfer the case to the CBI.

“There was a conspiracy, a criminal conspiracy in the incident at Karur,” said Arivazhagan, the lawyer, trashing DMK and police’s claim the TVK violated crowd safety guidelines.

“We didn’t violate conditions imposed by the police,” the lawyer said, pointing out that rallies at Madurai, Trichy, Ariyalur, Thiruvarur, Nagapattinam and Namakkal were held without incident.