CHENNAI/MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday denied anticipatory bail to top TVK functionaries N Anand and CTR Nirmal Kumar in the Karur stampede case, while the principal seat of the court in Chennai directed the police to take action against another senior TVK functionary Aadhav Arjuna for his “inflammatory” remarks laced with “seditious undertones” in a social media post that he deleted later.
Justice N Senthilkumar, who questioned the police regarding further action against Arjuna after filing an FIR, also dismissed the anticipatory bail petition of TVK’s Namakkal district secretary N Sathish Kumar.
Court directs police to probe Aadhav Arjuna’s comments seriously
Sathish Kumar had moved the court fearing arrest in an FIR filed for allegedly causing damages to a private hospital in Namakkal during Vijay’s rally there on September 27, the same day when the TVK chief also conducted a rally in Karur, where the stampede led to death of 41 people.
Justice Senthilkumar issued the direction to act against Aadhav Arjuna on a petition filed by KM Kathiravan of Chennai. The judge said a serious probe shall be held to assess the gravity and veracity of the comments made by the TVK general secretary (election management) on his X post. He recorded the submissions of Additional Advocate General J Ravindran and State Public Prosecutor Hasan Mohammed Jinnah that an FIR has been registered by the Greater Chennai Police under sections of BNS, including those dealing with intent to cause riot and jeopardising the sovereignty, unity and integrity of the nation, and investigations are on.
Meanwhile, Justice M Jothiraman of the Madurai Bench, who heard the anticipatory bail petitions of Anand alias Bussy Anand, general secretary of TVK, and Nirmal Kumar, joint secretary, said he was not inclined to grant anticipatory bail considering the deaths and gravity of offences.
Senior counsel V Raghavachari, representing the two, alleged ‘sinister motive’ behind the allotment of Velusamypuram in Karur for the rally. None of the 11 conditions imposed by the police were breached by TVK, he added and questioned why the police indulged in a lathi-charge without any reason.
The responsibility of regulating the crowd lies with the police, and they failed to provide sufficient protection, he said. To a specific question by the judge on whether the event organisers have no responsibility, the counsel replied that the petitioners were not the organisers and the Karur West District Secretary VP Mathiyazhagan, was the event organiser, who has already been arrested. He, however, added that he was not blaming Mathiyazhagan. Raghavachari contended that the petitioners had no ‘intention’ to kill, and what happened was an “accident”.
Additional advocate general Veera Kathiravan wondered if Anand’s petition can be heard by the bench since he is an ex-MLA and there is a designated special bench at the Principal Seat for cases relating to former MLAs and MPs.
He further said TVK violated the condition barring a roadshow at the event. The petitioners had spread wrong information that Vijay would reach Velusamypuram by 12 pm. They also did not take any measures to manage the crowd and instead absconded after the incident, he said. He said the police are responsible only for the protection and the organizers failed to arrange basic facilities like drinking water. He pointed out that many victims died due to dehydration.