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Hema Malini leads NDA delegation to Karur, meets bereaved families and injured victims
A delegation of NDA MPs proposed a Supreme Court-led inquiry into a stampede at Vijay's rally that killed 41, questioning state security measures.
A delegation of 8 MPs from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) including Anurag Thakur, Tejasvi Surya, Hema Malini who were in Karur on Tuesday to probe what had caused a stampede that killed 41 people actor-politician Vijay’s rally on September 27 have proposed an impartial enquiry to be conducted by a sitting Supreme Court judge. The MPs who visited the hospital where the injured are undergoing treatment and the scene of the stampede will submit a report to BJP national president J P Nadda who constituted the delegation a day ago.
BJP Lok Sabha MP Thakur told one of the families of the victims and the injured that they are “Proposing a to have a sitting Supreme Court judge to have a free and fair probe so that whoever is the culprit-whether it is the organiser or the state government-anyone behind this- will not be let scott free.” Former Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai translated the Tamil spoken by families and English spoken by the delegation to each other. In another spot, Annamalai told the delegation that the injured are alleging that miscreants randomly hurt people using a knife.
The NDA’s probe comes after the DMK government tasked retired justice Aruna Jagadeesan to investigate what had caused the stampede hours after the incident on September 27 night. Jagadeesan began her probe the next morning while Vijay’s party Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) has filed a plea in the Madurai bench of the Madras high court seeking a CBI probe alleging political conspiracy.
Surya said that there are doubts over whether the retired judge constituted by the ruling DMK government would function without any bias. “Even in the aftermath of the stampede in Bengaluru after RCB’s IPL victory, the single judge-led commission set up by the Congress government in Karnataka blamed the team management for the tragedy and absolved the state government completely,” Surya told reporters. “A commission that is handpicked by a State government can never give an independent opinion. All the families we met today have made it clear to us that don’t believe in this one-person commission.”
Thakur said that each member of the delegation has a set of questions on the DMK ruled state’s shortcomings in providing security and arrangements for Vijay’s political rally which they will send to Karur’s district and police officials to be answered.
“If Vijay had come late, and there were thousands of people gathered there already, what steps were taken by the police department? Where was the local administration? What were the organisers doing? Just throwing (water) bottles? I think there are many serious questions to be answered,” Thakur told reporters.
The delegation is planning to visit homes of each of the 41 who died. “A CBI probe should happen because the truth should come out. Otherwise, the state government will not let the truth come out,” said Rajya Sabha MP Rekha Sharma.
In response, DMK’s ally Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) sought Rahul Gandhi to also intervene and constitute a committee of Congress leaders. “BJP has nominated a committee to find facts in the tragedy of Karur and they have started their political play in Tamil Nadu,” VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan said. “I request that Rahul Gandhi intervene in this issue immediately. The Congress also has to appoint a committee to find facts in this tragedy.”
After police arrested TVK’s Karur (north) district secretary Mathiyazhagan, another party functionary who arranged flagpoles and flex banners was arrested on Tuesday, they booked TVK’s campaign management general secretary, Aadhav Arjuna (who is also the son in law of lottery baron Santiago Martin) under section 47/2025 u/s 192, 196(1)(b), 197(1)(d), 353(1)(b) and 353(2) of the BNS for his post on X which he later deleted calling for the youth of Tamil Nadu to revolt like youngsters in Nepal.
