The final selfie of a couple killed in the stampede at actor Vijay’s Karur rally on Saturday served as a reminder of how a happy moment turned into a death trap in minutes. A selfie sent by 24-year-old Akash with his fiancée, 24-year-old Gokulasree, went viral after the news of the couple’s death.
The image shows Akash posing with Gokulasree. He is seen wearing a white shirt and black shades. A yellow and red scarf is tied around his head, while Gokulasree is seen posing with a similar shawl around her neck. The image was apparently taken before the tragedy.
Gokulasree and Akash, who were planning to marry next month, according to the former’s mother. She added that the couple, hailing from Uppidamangalam in Karur, left home around 2 pm to see Vijay, after promising their families that they would stay away from the crowd. “They left because it was in Karur. Otherwise, I would not have allowed them to go. They said they were standing on the roof of someone’s residence,” Gokulasree’s mother said, adding that the stampede happened when they were coming down from the rooftop.
According to her mother, the last communication with the couple happened at 6:30 pm. “They were trampled to death,” she said. However, Gokulasree’s brother, who accompanied the couple, managed to escape the deadly crush.
The toll in the stampede here rose to 40 after a man succumbed to injuries at the government hospital.