The Supreme Court has agreed to urgently take up an application seeking to restrain Tamil Nadu chief minister Joseph Vijay and his cabinet ministers from interacting with victims of the Karur stampede or their families with the alleged intention of influencing witnesses in the CBI probe into the case.
Forty-one people were killed and 142 injured in a stampede at an election rally by TVK chief Vijay on September 27 last year. Police had said the rally saw a turnout of around 27,000 people — nearly three times the expected number — and blamed the tragedy on a seven-hour delay by Vijay in reaching the venue.
A bench of Justices Ahsanullah Amanullah and Sheel Nagu conceded the request of senior advocate Huzefa Ahmadi representing DMK organising secretary R.S. Bharathi, who had moved the application.
Quoting media reports, the petition submitted that Vijay is likely to travel to Karur on or around July 10 to meet the families of the deceased and injured victims of the stampede and hand out compassionate appointments and other benefits.
According to the application, the affected families are material witnesses in the criminal case registered by the Tamil Nadu police that was subsequently transferred to the CBI on the top court’s direction.
“In these exceptional circumstances, where the investigation is still pending, any direct interaction with such material witnesses by persons connected with the subject matter of the investigation or by the political executive presently in office, particularly while distributing benefits arising out of the very incident under investigation, has the potential to give rise to an apprehension, whether real or perceived, regarding the fairness and independence of the investigative process,” the application said.
The petition also referred to a public statement allegedly made last week by TVK MLA Aadhav Arjuna, in which he purportedly said that there was "a score to settle" over the stampede and accused the previous DMK government of having "killed" the people of Karur through the police.
