The Tamil Nadu Police has arrested Mathiyalagan, the Karur district general secretary of actor-politician Vijay’s Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam, in connection with the stampede on September 27 that left 41 dead, The Indian Express reported on Monday.
Three others have been arrested on accusations of spreading rumours about the stampede on social media, said the Chennai Police.
After the stampede, the police filed a case against Mathiyalagan, the Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam’s state general secretary ‘Bussy’ Anand and deputy general secretary Nirmal Kumar, The Indian Express reported. Vijay himself, however, was not among those booked.
The police have invoked Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections pertaining to culpable homicide not amounting to murder, endangering the lives of others and disobeying an order by a public servant, as well as provisions of the Tamil Nadu Public Property Prevention of Destruction and Loss Act, 1982.
The stampede occurred shortly after 7.30 pm on September 27 at the Veluchamy Puram area of the Karur district, where the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam chief was speaking from atop his campaign vehicle.
Several of those who attended the rally fainted due to overcrowding. Vijay’s speech was interrupted twice as ambulances were brought in to take those who collapsed.
The first information report alleged that while permission had been granted for 10,000 attendees, more than 25,000 persons gathered at the venue. A day prior to the event, television channels had said that Vijay would arrive at Karur by noon, but he only entered the district by 4.45 pm, The Indian Express quoted the FIR as saying.
On the way, Vijay held several unsanctioned roadshows, the police said. They alleged that by the time the actor-politician arrived at the Veluchamy Puram area around 7 pm, “thousands were crammed into a narrow space”. Mathiyalagan and other party officials failed to properly regulate the outfit’s cadres, said the FIR.
“Instead, party cadres were made to climb and sit on the nearby narrow sloping tin sheds (erected to provide shade to shops) and also on the nearby trees,” the police alleged, according to The Indian Express. When the tin structures collapsed and tree branches broke, party members fell on the general public standing below, leading to many of them suffocating, as per the FIR.
Among those who died were 18 women and nine children. Authorities have confirmed the identities of all the victims and the bodies have been handed over to their families.
Following the stampede, the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam approached the Madras High Court seeking suo motu cognisance of the incident.
The party, in its petition, claimed that there were “some conspiracies” at play that led to the stampede. The petition sought a suo motu investigation or a probe by an independent agency.
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