The victims of the Karur stampede have revealed that a petition was filed in the Supreme Court on behalf of the political party for using their names without their consent. A new petition is likely to be filed in the Supreme Court today regarding the same.
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Sharmila, the mother of nine-year-old Prithvik, and Selvaraj, the husband of Chandra, who died in the Karur stampede, have been in the dark about the public interest petitions filed in the supreme court petitions in their name.
P. Selvaraj (51), who lost his wife, K. Chandra, in the stampede during actor-politician Vijay’s rally, is shattered.
More than the death of Chandra and the sorrow that has filled his family, a petition filed in the Supreme Court in his name, seeking a CBI probe into the stampede, has shaken him psychologically.
“I am unaware of all these developments. I am illiterate and I do not know how the court and justice system operate. I am not financially sound to handle these situations. How do you think I can afford to hire a Supreme Court advocate and argue in the Supreme Court?” asks Selvaraj, over the phone from Karur.
A little away from Selvaraj’s place at Emoor Puthur village, Sharmila, who lost her nine-year-old son, Prithvik, is exhausted and shaken.
Her ex-husband, Paneerselvam—who had abandoned her and her son eight years ago—had approached the Supreme Court in a separate petition saying that the “government has failed in its duty to ensure public safety and police investigations were compromised, due to official negligence and political interference".
Hailing from the Arunthathiyar community in Karur district, the families of Selvaraj and Sharmila are clueless as to what will happen next.
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“My husband wants the compensation money to be paid to him. He wanted the cheque from the government and the TVK party in his name. He doesn’t even know where the Supreme Court is, and how the legal system works,” Sharmila told THE WEEK over the phone from Karur.
In fact, she has got a government certificate saying that she is a single mother and that her husband had abandoned her.
“He didn’t even visit the hospital mortuary when we were waiting to receive Prithik’s body. He made a quick visit to the crematorium and left immediately. He didn’t even talk with us,” says Sharmila.
She says he asked the government to give the cheque for compensation in his name.
Panneerselvam, a private bus driver, lives in Coimbatore and has never visited the family in the past eight years, except when he met with an accident.
“We only took care of him and treated him when he got bedridden. For one year he was with us. But after he got well, he moved out and did not even visit his son,” says Sharmila’s mother. Panneerselvam was not available for comments.
Selvaraj is now looking for ways to come out of the Supreme Court and the legal fight in his name. The daily wage labourer—who makes hardly Rs 700 a day—lives with his two sons at Emoor Puthur village.
On September 27, Vijay’s TVK organisers took over 50 people in a van from the village, in which Chandra, Sharmila, and her nine-year-old son Prithvik, travelled to Velusamypuram to get a glimpse of Vijay.
“Everything was peaceful and good until his bus arrived at the spot. I was talking to my wife till then,” says Selvaraj. But he doesn’t know that a petition has been filed in the Supreme Court in his name.
Days after the tragedy, when the family was mourning the death of Chandra, one of the local AIADMK functionaries, calling himself a close aide of former minister M.R. Vijayabhaskar, approached him.
“He promised government compensation and a job for my elder son. He asked me to sign a few papers for that. Because I am illiterate, I signed in all the papers he showed me without reading it. He also took my Aadhar card copy,” Selvaraj told THE WEEK over the phone. However, Selvaraj didn’t know it was for a court case.
Sources say that the vakalat for Selvaraj was signed by S. Karikalan, joint secretary of AIADMK’s Karur district MGR youth wing.
Karikalan, who was an additional public prosecutor during the AIADMK regime, had signed the vakalatnama to appoint senior counsel A. Lakshmi Narayanan to conduct the case for Selvaraj.
“What has now come to light in the petition at the Honourable Supreme Court seeking a CBI inquiry into Karur TVK stampede, is nothing short of an attempt to mislead the highest court of the land,” said DMK organising secretary R.S. Bharathi.
He also said that this was a calculated political act aimed at manipulating the judicial process.
"This is a dangerous attempt to use grief and tragedy for cheap political gain. I hope the Honourable Supreme Court investigates what appears to be brazen fraud in the court and deals with those behind it with the severity they deserve," he added.
When contacted, sources in the TVK said that they had filed a petition with the apex court in their own capacity, and did not approach any of the families of the deceased to play such cheap politics.
However, with the Supreme Court likely to pronounce the interim orders on Monday, the petitioners who sought a CBI enquiry have decided to appear in the Supreme Court alleging that they were misled into signing and being included as petitioners in the case.
With the orders expected to be announced today, all eyes are on the Supreme Court. |
