In a huge setback to the DMK, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said that it would not step into the political arena by regulating what an elected chief minister can or cannot say about a pending criminal investigation. The court refused to entertain a plea seeking to restrain Tamil Nadu chief minister C. Joseph Vijay from visiting Karur or commenting on the Karur stampede case.
Justices K.V. Viswanathan and Alok Aradhe of the Supreme Court permitted the applicant, R.S. Bharathi, to withdraw his plea with liberty to pursue such other remedies as may be available to him. The applicant chose to withdraw the case after the judges made it clear that they were inclined to dismiss it even on merits. During the hearing, the judges wondered how could the Supreme Court be expected to regulate the visit of a Chief Minister to Karur and meet the victims. They said a political opponent could not be allowed to implead in the pending case and turn the court into a political forum.
DMK’s legal goof-up and SC snub
Following this the DMK withdrew its plea seeking impleadment in the Karur stampede case pending before Supreme Court. Over 41 people had died and several others were injured in September 2025 in Karur during a political campaign rally attended by Vijay. And now after the snub at the Supreme Court, the DMK is all set to file a contempt of court petition against Tamil Nadu minister Aadhav Arjuna instead and lodge a formal complaint with the committee of retired judges monitoring the CBI probe into the karur stampede case.
Instead of approaching the SIT against minister Aadhav Arjuna’s comments, the DMK approached the apex court. During the proceedings, the advocate appearing for the DMK wrongly referred to Vijay as the accused in the case. The Supreme Court bench immediately clarified that Vijay was only a witness in the matter and not an accused. This factual error in the submission is believed to be one of the most important reasons for the court’s strong observations against the DMK.
According to TVK, the party is planning to reach out to the families and provide relief and support. The TVK is of the opinion that the DMK is trying to obstruct chief minister’s visit to Karur and also stop the relief measures for the victims.
In a related development, the Chennai police have registered a case against DMK’s Karur strongman V. Senthil Balaji and his brother V. Ashok Kumar, claiming they tried to bribe one of the TVK MLAs while conspiring to topple the Vijay government.
The Karur stampede, which killed 41 people and injured several others, was handed over to the CBI by the Supreme Court. Vijay was summoned by the CBI for questioning twice before. But now the chief minister will be free to visit Karur on July 10 as scheduled.
Vijay’s visit to Karur
This will be Vijay’s first official visit as the chief minister. Though Vijay had visited Trichy for a party event after becoming CM, Karur will be his first official stop as CM. Vijay will be participating in a government event in Karur and meet the families of the victims for the second time since the incident. Earlier, he had met them at a luxurious five-star resort near Chennai in October 2025. Of course, this will be a symbolic move to reach out to the families of the victims. Vijay had blamed the police under the then DMK government for not visiting Karur to meet the families affected during the stampede. He came under criticism for not visiting the families even after coming to power. Recently, minister Aadhav Arjuna during a party event made a scathing remark, alleging that the police department under the DMK then killed over 41 people in the stampede at Karur.
