The Madras High Court on Friday rejected the anticipatory bail filed by Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam district secretary N Sathish Kumar seeking bail in the Karur stampede case. The HC dismissed the plea and questioned the party over not being able to control the crowd. The court also ordered setting up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under senior IPS officer Asra Garg to probe the stampede.
The HC also called out the party and Vijay for leaving the spot after the incident. The bench stressed on TVK cadre’s unruly behaviour, including the rampage and damage caused to the public properties during the party chief Vijay’s roadshow.
The HC also rejected a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader’s petition seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the Karur stampede, in which 41 people lost their lives.
The court asked BJP leader Uma Anandan to approach Madurai bench of the HC to present her concern.
On September 27, stampede at actor-politician Vijay‘s public rally killed 41 persons, leading to a massive political uproar in the state. Ruling party DMK has accused the TVK for the deaths while Vijay has alleged conspiracy and blamed Stalin for the tragedy.
In the court, Government Advocate S Santhosh also submitted nine First Information Reports (FIR) registered against the party members, including the district secretary, in connection with the destruction of public properties, opposing the granting of the anticipatory bail.
Stalin attacks BJP
Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin on Friday slammed BJP and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for rushing to Karur after the stampede, adding that the Centre had ignored Tamil Nadu during previous disasters.
“When Tamil Nadu was struck by three major disasters, affecting thousands of people, the Union BJP Finance Minister neither visited nor provided any funds. But now, she immediately rushes to Karur. The BJP, which did not send inquiry commissions for the Manipur riots, Gujarat incidents, or the Kumbh Mela deaths, is now promptly sending a team to Karur, not out of any genuine concern for Tamil Nadu, but simply because elections are due next year,” he said.
“They (BJP) think they can gain some political mileage out of this (Karur stampede deaths) or use it to threaten someone. The BJP is in a position where it survives by sucking someone else’s blood,” Stalin added.
Anurag Thakur’s letter to Stalin
Earlier in the day, BJP MP Anurag Thakur urged the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister to take full charge of the situation and direct the concerned authorities to submit a comprehensive report at the earliest. Thakur was a member of the NDA-BJP fact-finding delegation that visited Karur.
In a letter to CM Stalin, Thakur asked for a detailed inquiry into the incident, urging that the report include an analysis of the primary causes of the tragedy, crowd control arrangements made by local authorities, lapses identified so far, and measures being planned by the state to prevent such incidents in the future.