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The Tamil Nadu government, on Tuesday, September 30, held a special press meet to debunk the narratives surrounding the stampede at Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) rally in Karur. The stampede claimed 41 lives, including nine children, and left 200 others injured.
Officials, including DGP Davidson Devasirvatham, health secretary Dr P Senthilkumar, Additional Chief Secretary to Government, P Amudha, clarified that there was no power outage, no police lathi charge, and that ambulances were mobilised from nearby locations — countering claims circulating widely on social media.
Apart from Karur, officials revealed the district-wise figures of TVK tour-related accidents and crowd surges. According to officials there has been one death in Villupuram and two in Madurai. Further, 42 people were injured in Villupuram, 14 in Madurai, 12 in Trichy, six in Ariyalur, 17 in Tiruvarur, five in Nagapattinam, 35 in Namakkal, and 114 in Karur.
The press meet was held within an hour of actor-politician Vijay’s video statement asking why the tragedy occurred only in Karur out of the five districts he has been on tour so far, hinting that a political conspiracy was in play.
The police explained that the TVK had initially suggested seven possible venues, eventually settling on Velusamypuram after the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) had conducted a rally in the same spot on September 25. “They asked for a location that had already held 15,000 people without incident. But areas like the roundabout were not feasible due to a petrol pump and Karur drainage canal nearby,” the officials said.
Despite TVK organisers estimating 10,000 people as per their letter, police said they anticipated 20,000 and deployed 500 police personnel — double the standard ratio. “Normally one officer manages 50 people. Here, we had one officer for 20. The crowd was far larger than stated,” DGP Davidson Devasirvatham explained.
On the issue of power cuts, Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) CEO’s video statement was played. “There was an uninterrupted power supply. Only a generator faulted when people entered the room due to crowding,” officials added, showing timestamped visuals of lights going out in just one spot.
Addressing allegations of police lathi-charge, the ADGP said, “Fifty metres before the speaking point, the pressure kept increasing. The DGP instructed them not to move beyond a certain point but the organisers insisted. Police only acted to restrict surging crowds, not to baton-charge.”
Visuals presented at the meet showed policemen distributing water and fanning unconscious people.
Scores of social media posts had asked how so many ambulances had been mobilised within minutes, how hospitals were fully staffed, and how post-mortems were conducted so quickly, insinuating that the entire tragedy was pre-planned.
The Health Secretary, in response to this,said, “The first call came at 7.14 pm, and the ambulance reached by 7.20 pm. Within minutes, standard protocol was activated, with 108 ambulances from Karur and nearby districts and 33 private ambulances mobilised.”
Karur Medical College, with 220 doctors and 165 nurses, handled the casualties. “Post-mortems were conducted overnight by mobilising 114 specialists, including 16 forensic experts, to avoid prolonging families’ agony,” officials said.
Earlier in the evening, Vijay released a video suggesting political vendetta and questioned why the tragedy had occurred only in Karur, when his tour had passed through five other districts without incident. Addressing Chief Minister MK Stalin directly, Vijay said, “CM sir, if you want to take revenge, do anything to me. Don’t touch them. I will either be in my house or office, do anything to me.” His remarks came a day after the TVK moved the Madras High Court, alleging that the stampede was engineered by the police and a local politician with “illicit connections with local goondas.”