TVK Chief Actor Vijay. (file photo)
Digital Desk, New Delhi. TVK chief and actor Vijay Karur is going to appear before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Delhi in the case of stampede in Karur, Tamil Nadu. 41 people lost their lives in this accident.
The stampede occurred at a major political rally of Vijay on September 27 last year, becoming one of the deadliest crowd accidents in the recent political history of Tamil Nadu. The investigation into this incident has taken several legal turns. Initially, the Madras High Court had formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the causes of this tragedy.
Supreme Court ordered CBI investigation
However, the Supreme Court later handed over the investigation to the CBI and directed that it be monitored by a panel headed by a retired Supreme Court judge. The Supreme Court also quashed the one-member commission earlier appointed by the Tamil Nadu government, holding that a more independent and credible investigation was needed. The special thing is that Vijay's party, Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) itself had demanded an independent investigation into the incident.
Vijay accused of arriving late
At the time of the accident, the Tamil Nadu Police had blamed Vijay's alleged inordinate delay in reaching the venue as the cause of the chaos and said that the crowd had gone out of control due to the long wait. Police officials also cited the lack of adequate food, drinking water and toilet facilities and said the exhausted crowd eventually went out of control.
However, Vijay denied these allegations and called them a conspiracy by the ruling DMK. The DMK, in response, blamed the police for poor crowd management and failure to clear the crowd on the roads leading to the venue.
Also read: From MGR to Vijay: The changing equation of film stars in Tamil Nadu politics