Vijay Blames Police for Karur Stampede, Attacks DMK as “Vending Machine of Corruption”

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, July 10: On his first visit back to Karur, the scene of stampede last year in which 41 people were killed, the Tamil Nadu chief minister C Joseph Vijay on Friday announced construction of a memorial by his Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) party for the victims, blamed the then police for “misleading” him causing the stampede and slammed the then ruling party DMK for attempting to gain “political mileage” from the tragic incident while describing it as “vending machine of corruption.”

He also condemned the DMK’s move to restrain him from visiting the tragic site after the incident to express his condolences to make political advantage.

It was the first time in nine months after the September 27 stampede last year that claimed the lives of 41 persons during his party’s roadshow that Mr Vijay returned to Karur on Friday. This was also his first official visit to the town after he assumed charge as the Chief Minister in May.

The DMK has argued that the move amounts to influencing witnesses in the ongoing probe. The opposition party approached the Supreme Court last week, but its plea was rejected. “What exactly are you trying to say? You want the court to dictate what a chief minister should do?” the court asked. “Chief Minister Vijay is not an accused.”

The DMK withdrew its plea but approached the court-appointed supervisory committee and the Central Bureau of Investigation, the agency probing the stampede, seeking safeguards to preserve witness statements before Friday’s visit. But earlier, about an hour before Vijay’s arrival, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court refused to interfere with what it said was a “policy decision” – i.e., to provide jobs to the victims’ families – and allowed appointment letters to be issued.

Speaking at Atlas Kalaiarangam in Karur, Mr Vijay, who stated that the stampede was a deep scar in his life, announced a memorial for the victims of the 2025 stampede, on behalf of TVK. Later in the day, he handed over appointment orders for government jobs to 31 kin of people killed in the tragic stampede after the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on Friday refused to grant a stay on the government’s move on a plea challenging the decision.

Coming down heavily on the DMK, he termed the Dravidian party the “vending machine” of corruption.  Vijay blamed the police for not alerting him about the swelling crowd at the TVK venue on September 27 last, nor taking any steps to cancel the meeting as the crowd had become unmanageable to control.

Accusing the police of misleading him, he said he had “trusted” the police in proceeding with the rally and described the stampede as “the most painful moment in my life, one that continues to haunt me.” “No matter how much success one enjoys… there are such incidents in life. When I entered Karur they (the police) could have stopped me, no? The police could have alerted us that the crowd was swelling and become unmanageable to control. The police have all the right to cancel the meeting. Without doing so, the police escorted us on the highway,” Vijay said.

“They had every right to cancel the meeting. But they did not, they guided me in… Then I trusted the police fully and I even thanked them at the meeting. I didn’t know about the drama.  But who is really responsible for this… who orchestrated this?” he asked, pivoting from criticism of the police to attacks on the DMK in power at the time.

Lamenting the loss of “innocent, cherubic children”, he also hit back at criticism over his silence in the aftermath. Vijay and his TVK came under attack, particularly from the DMK, for not speaking publicly for an extended period. “You mocked me… when I was feeling crushed and in pain at home, you said I was ‘hiding’,” Vijay, dressed in black, said.

He also suggested that the DMK and the police had “conspired” to trigger the stampede and gain political advantage ahead of the April 2026 Assembly election. “Did the police deploy enough people? They blamed me shamelessly and MK Stalin did politics,” he said, reiterating the TVK’s claim that the tragedy was manufactured to derail his eventually successful campaign.

Vijay could not meet the affected 41 families in Karur last year but had those affected families were brought near Chennai and he personally consoled them. Vijay said “I trusted the police fully and even thanked them at the meeting. I didn’t know about the drama. Who is responsible for this? Under whose instruction was all this done,” he asked.

He said the DMK tried to gain political mileage out of tragedy. “They tried to gain political mileage,” out of the tragedy, he said in an apparent reference to the DMK, then in the ruling saddle. “We have lost children of our sisters in 2025 Karur stampede,” he said. Later, he took out a road show, with people queuing up on either sides of the road in good numbers. He waved at them and greeted them with folded hands.

State Minister for Rural Development and Water Resources and TVK General Secretary N Anand informed that only 5,000 persons possessing a QR code entry pass will be allowed to attend the programme and appealed to the people to strictly follow the police guidelines.

As the Chief Minister left for Karur from his Neelankarai residence in Chennai, Public Works and Sports Development Minister Aadhav Arjuna told reporters that the government had confirmed the final list of those injured and verified them.

Stating that the pain of the 41 affected families who lost their loved ones in the tragic incident was “indescribable,” Karur Congress MP Jothimani said no amount of compensation could wipe the tears of those affected.

“We all know that a job appointment alone cannot bring back the lives they lost. But we must also understand the struggle that those families are facing today. Many of those who died were the only source of income for their families. They were simple, marginalised people,” she said on ‘X’, defending the state government’s decision amidst sharp criticism by the opposition parties that faulted the Chief Minister’s visit as politically motivated and would hamper the CBI probe into the Karur stampede case.

Vijay, whose movie star status commands a massive fan following across Tamil Nadu, also urged voters to hand the DMK multiple electoral defeats, and said the party had indulged in widespread corruption that he had already begun dismantling.

DMK’s deputy general secretary and MP Kanimozhi, who was speaking to journalists at Thoothukudi on Friday, said: “Karur stampede case is under probe. People know who helped them at the time of distress; sensitivity, responsibility is important,” while reacting to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and TVK president Vijay’s speech at Karur earlier in the day.