Karur TVK stampede: Organisational lapses led to deadly mishap at Vijay's rally? Death toll increases to 40

It is 5.30am. The sound of women wailing in front of the mortuary at the government medical college hospital at Gandhigram in Karur is heart-wrenching. Three elderly women are seen hugging each other and singing Oppari (the death music in Tamil). A huge crowd is seen waiting in front of the mortuary at the hospital as ambulances drive in and out. 

At least 40 people, including 10 children and 16 women, have died in the stampede at Velusamypuram at Karur, during actor and Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) leader Vijay's people outreach campaign on Saturday. The death toll, according to sources, is likely to increase as 58 more people are still getting treated at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Karur Medical College Hospital.

Crying nonstop, 25-year-old Santhosh is inconsolable.  Standing in front of the mortuary, his sister shows the picture of his eight-year-old nephew, Prithvik, in her WhatsApp status. "Thalattu Padava" (can I sing a lullaby) plays on her phone as she shows the picture. "Aiyyo...I shot his photo only yesterday to have it as my WhatsApp status. But my little boy is gone; the WhatsApp status is still live now," cries Revathi, who waits for her sister to come out from the mortuary with Prithvik's body. 

"Bubblu poittan akka," (Bubblu is dead, sister) says her sister as she comes running to hug Revathi. She is the mother of Prithvik, who got treated at the Karur hospital, as she too was hurt in the stampede. Being a fan of actor Vijay, eight-year-old Prithvik and his family set out from Erumaputhur, a locality 12km off Karur, along with a few other women in a van on Saturday at 10am.

While Prithvik's family is waiting to receive his body at the mortuary, grief has struck Erumaputhur village. A total of five people from the village, including three women and two children, have died from Erumaputhur alone. "I advised my wife to stay back at home. She didn't listen to me. She is a fan of Vijay, and she fought with me for stopping her," says 51-year-old K. Sakthivel. 

Clad in a white dhothi and his head shoven, Sakthivel refuses to drink even a cup of water. "What will I do now? There is nobody for me. I am alone now." Sakthivel, who lost his 9-year-old daughter a few years before due to illness, has now lost his wife Priyadarshini and 14-year-old elder daughter Dharanika.

Sakthivel called his wife thrice during the day. But, she wasn't reachable after 5pm. So he sent a voice message and she replied to him in a voice note, again by around 6.30pm. When Sakthivel saw the visuals emerging from the spot, he called her again. But she wasn't reachable. By 9pm, a police constable picked up Priyadarshini's phone and asked him to come to the hospital. But before he could reach, both his wife and daughter had died.

Heaps of footwear, shirts, dupattas, yellow and red ( TVK flag) coloured shawls, and torn party flags are strewn across at the Velusamypuram. The 80-foot road bears the grim aftermath of Vijay's rally. The cables running to the electricity transformer on the spot hangs on one side. The asbestos sheets in front of the shops are broken. A few two-wheelers lie there, with the seat covers torn and broken handlebars.

Early morning on Sunday, the local residents at Velusamypuram recount the horror scenes at Vijay's rally, which killed 40 people. "I am working at a cement factory here. My 24-year-old son had come here to see Vijay. He came at 12pm. The crowd began coming in from 10am itself. When I heard about the soaring crowd, I came here and took my son," says 52-year-old Samypillai. "We were told that he will come at 12pm. But he came only by 7.40pm. I ensured that my entire family stayed back inside the house," says R. Rajeswari, a resident of Velusamypuram.

According to people from the locality, the choice of the venue, Vijay's late arrival, and lack of basic amenities like water and food aggravated the situation. "Karur town DSP Selvaraj informed the organisers of the rally that it is not advisable for Vijay to reach the spot as the crowd was growing restless. But the organisers refused to listen. Vijay, who was waving to the crowd from inside the bus, stopped it for a while, and so the crowd started following him," says Davidson Devasievatham, ADGP, Law and Order.

While some of the people at the spot and the hospital criticised the police for the lack of required bandobust, Davidson says that one policeman for 50 people is the usual count for a dense crowd, as per police norms. "We had deployed one policeman for 20 people." However, sources confirm that Vijay, who was waving to the crowd from atop the bus, got inside and switched off the face lamp, while his bus crossed the 800-metre road to reach the spot.

According to sources, TVK organisers in Karur presented five spots before the police and the district administration while seeking permission for the rally. They had asked for spots, including the bus stand roundabout and the Light House in Karur, for the rally. However, the places they sought were thickly populated business areas and the police denied permission. Instead, the police granted permission for the meeting at Velusamypuram on Karur-Erode Road, where AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami held a rally on September 14, which was again suggested and accepted by the organisers.

TVK, on the other side, announced on its Twitter handle that Vijay will arrive at 12noon, while he reached the spot at 7.40pm only. Many of them in the crowd, mostly women and children, began waiting at the spot from 11am to get a glimpse of their favourite tinsel artist, while the organisers played the campaign song of the actor, making many of the women dance. And as Vijay reached the spot, the crowd began following him as they wanted to see and hear him speak. But, as many women started moving inside the makeshift place kept ready for a generator for sourcing power, the cable wire to the console and Vijay's audio speakers were cut off and were subsequently switched off.

This led to huge chaos as Vijay could not be heard, and the crowd moved to the other side of his bus. Meanwhile, the partymen attacked the ambulances and the ambulance drivers who tried to reach the spot to pick up the people who fainted. This again led to a delay in getting medical help for those who were affected. "The power lines were not cut off, nor was it switched off, there was electricity supply. But the generator organised by them was switched off. We had to snap power for a while before Vijay could reach the spot," says E. Rajalakshmi, chief engineer of the electricity department at Karur.

The one-man commission headed by former Madras High Court judge Justice Aruna Jagadesan has started a probe to find the actual cause that led to the mishap. 

Meanwhile, the Madras High Court has decided to urgently hear a petition filed by a Karur resident, who participated in the rally to forbid the DGP from granting permissions for any further public meetings by the party. The court has also allowed an urgent mention made by the TVK party seeking a suo motu cognisance into the stampede