The Karur West district secretary of actor-politician Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), V P Mathyiyalagan, was arrested by the Tamil Nadu police on Monday.
Mathyiyalagan was named the prime accused in the First Information Report (FIR) that was registered following the stampede that occurred during Vijay’s Saturday rally, in which 41 people died and 60 were injured.
He was picked up near the Karur-Dindigul border, an official said.
The secretary was among the three TVK office bearers named in the FIR, which did not name the TVK chief, Vijay. The other two TVK party functionaries named in the FIR include TVK state general secretary Bussy Anand, and party deputy general secretary Nirmal Kumar.
The three party functionaries have been booked under sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 110 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 125 (endangering life of others), and 223 (disobedience to order), of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Section 3 of the Tamil Nadu Public Property (Prevention of Damage and Loss) Act, 1992, has also been levelled against them, a police official said.
Also Read: FIR suggests Vijay's stay in vehicle led to stampede
It has also been mentioned in the FIR that the TVK chief, Vijay, conducted unauthorised road shows before arriving late at Velusamypuram, where his vehicle stopped as the crowds surged. The FIR states that Vijay had “deliberately” reached late at Velusamypuram in Karur district, leading to overcrowding and restlessness among the people waiting to attend his rally on September 27.
"The functionaries were warned about the uncontrollable crowd and creating unnecessary expectation and abnormal circumstances that could lead to suffocation, grievous injury, and death. The crowd had become uncontrollable by police personnel deployed for security purposes," the FIR said.
It also accused the TVK party functionaries of not regulating their cadres or heeding police warnings against overcrowding.
“Cadres perched atop tin sheets and tree branches, by throwing caution to the wind, fell on people standing below, and as a result, many choked, leading to an abnormal situation”, police said in the FIR.
Police Inspector G Mathialagan, who filed the FIR, stated that he and the Deputy Superintendent of Police had warned TVK office-bearers Mathiazhagan, Anand and Nirmal Kumar about the serious dangers posed by heavy overcrowding.
With the death of a 60-year-old woman on Monday, the toll in the stampeded has climbed to 41.
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