Karur stampede: TVK district secretary Mathyiyalagan arrested

Actor-politician Vijay-led Karur West district secretary Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam was arrested in connection with the stampede at the party president’s rally, police said.

Karur West district secretary VP Mathyiyalagan was among the three TVK office bearers named in the FIR in the stampede on September 27 in which at least 41 people died and 60 were injured.

TVK state general secretary Bussy Anand and party deputy general secretary Nirmal Kumar are the other two party office bearers named in the FIR.

Mathyiyalagan was arrested near the Karur-Dindigul border, an official said on the night of Monday (September 29).

The three TVK officials were booked under sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 110 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 125 (endangering life of others) and 223 (disobedience to order) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

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They were also charged under Section 3 of the Tamil Nadu Public Property (Prevention of Damage and Loss) Act, 1992, a police official said.

According to the FIR, TVK leader Vijay “deliberately” arrived late at Velusamypuram in Karur district, leading to overcrowding and unrest among the people gathered to attend his September 27 rally.

He also said that TVK party officials did not regulate their cadres and did not heed police warnings against overcrowding.

“Executives perched on top of metal sheets and tree branches, while exercising caution in the wind, fell on the people below and as a result, many suffocated, leading to an abnormal situation,” police said in the FIR.

The death toll from the stampede rose to 41 people on Monday September 29, with a 60-year-old woman succumbing to her injuries in a hospital.

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