'Everybody fled scene': HC slams TVK over TN stampede, sets up SIT

The Madras high court on Friday called a stampede in Tamil Nadu's Karur town last week a "huge man-made disaster" and said it cannot remain a "mute spectator", ordering a special investigation team (SIT) led by IPS officer Asra Garg to probe the tragedy that killed 41 people.

- Ayesha Arvind

Justice N Senthilkumar also slammed the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) and its leader, actor-turned-politician Vijay, who was set to address the rally on September 27, and criticised the state police for not arresting members of the party.

"This was a huge man-made disaster. The entire world witnessed the unfortunate incident. Everyone right from the President to the Prime Minister has expressed condolences. But the police action does not appear to be adequate," justice Senthilkumar said.

Without taking names, the judge said that the main leader too "fled from the scene of occurrence, and vanished" while his supporters lay dead and injured.

"What kind of party is this? Everybody in the party fled from the place. Why has the police not issued any notice to the party... The court highly condemns such an act of the political party especially when children and women have died. You have not even expressed remorse. This shows the mental state of the leader," justice Senthilkumar said.

The tragedy unfolded around 8pm last Saturday at Velusamy-puram on the Karur-Erode highway when the surging crowd of over 60,000 broke past barricades as Vijay appeared on stage. Many victims were women and children who had travelled from across western Tamil Nadu to see Vijay, a Tamil cinema icon.

Since then, the police have arrested two people even as Vijay has refused to apologise and blamed the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government, which has instituted a judicial probe into the incident.