NEW DELHI: Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) leader Vijay on Monday told the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that he can’t be held responsible for the crowd crush in Karur that left 41 people dead, and that he had left the venue immediately to avoid further tragedy, sources said.
During the six-hour-long interrogation at the CBI headquarters in New Delhi, Vijay was questioned on matters related to the rally held at Velusamypuram last September, including the delay in his arrival to the venue and his decision to leave the place when the situation worsened. “He was asked to narrate the sequence of events that could have led to the stampede. He was also asked if he was aware of how congested the venue was and the expected footfall,” an agency official told TNIE.
CBI likely to call Vijay for another round of questioning
The Tamil superstar arrived at the heavily barricaded CBI headquarters at 11.30 am in a black Range Rover. Sources said Vijay left for Delhi from Chennai at 7 am on a chartered flight on Monday with some of his TVK colleagues. The agency had already questioned several TVK office-bearers and DGP (Armed Police) S Davidson Devasirvatham in the case.
Vijay will be called again for questioning in the case and his statements will be cross-examined with other eye-witness accounts, the CBI source said.
“We wanted him to come again on Tuesday for another round of questioning, but the actor sought another date citing the upcoming Pongal festival. We agreed to his request and a fresh date will be given to him,” the agency official said. He left the CBI headquarters at 6.15 pm. Around 50 of his fans had arrived at the heavily-barricaded office to get a glimpse of the actor.
Soon after the stampede, the TN police had blamed Vijay’s alleged inordinate delay in arriving at the venue for triggering the chaos, saying that the prolonged wait had led to the swelling of the crowd. The alleged six-hour delay led to heat exhaustion and dehydration.
Vijay, however, denied the charges, calling them a “conspiracy” by the ruling DMK, and blamed the police for poor crowd management.