{"id":90512,"date":"2025-09-28T18:26:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T18:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/aides-charged-after-rally-stampede-kills-40"},"modified":"2025-09-28T18:51:36","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T18:51:36","slug":"aides-charged-after-rally-stampede-kills-40","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/aides-charged-after-rally-stampede-kills-40","title":{"rendered":"Aides Charged After Rally Stampede Kills 40"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>CHENNAI – Police charged three close aides of a popular actor and politician with culpable homicide and negligence on Sunday after a stampede at his rally in southern India killed at least 40 people, officials said.<\/p>\n

Some 27,000 people thronged a public road in Tamil Nadu state in the hope of seeing the politician, known by the single name of Vijay, on Saturday but panic broke out, triggering a deadly crush.<\/p>\n

Such crowd incidents happen frequently during mass gatherings in India and are often blamed on lax safety measures.<\/p>\n

Police filed a case against three senior members of Vijay’s party, whom they identified as Bussy Anand, G.R. Nirmal Kumar and V.P. Mathiyazhagan.<\/p>\n

“A case has been registered and the investigation will reveal all who are involved,” senior police officer S. Davidson Devasirvatham told reporters.<\/p>\n

All three have been charged with “culpable homicide not amounting to murder” and negligent conduct endangering human life.<\/p>\n

Witnesses cited hours of delays, insufficient police presence and people falling from a tree branch onto the audience as reasons contributing to the crush.<\/p>\n

Vijay was addressing the rally in Karur district when the crowd surged suddenly, forcing him to halt his speech.<\/p>\n

Videos on social media showed him tossing water bottles to supporters shortly before the panic broke out.<\/p>\n

“I am at a loss for words to express the pain my heart endures,” the 51-year-old star said in a statement on Sunday.<\/p>\n

“This is indeed an irreparable loss for us,” he said, adding that he would pay two million rupees ($22,000) to each of the victims’ families as compensation.<\/p>\n

Senior district official M. Thangavel said 40 people had been killed in the stampede, raising an earlier toll of 39.<\/p>\n

Nine children were among the dead.<\/p>\n

HUGE CROWDS<\/b><\/p>\n

State police chief G. Venkataraman said crowds had been waiting for hours after the public was told that Vijay would arrive at the venue by noon.<\/p>\n

“The crowds started coming in from 11 am. He came at 7:40 pm,” Venkataraman told reporters. “The people lacked sufficient food and water under the hot sun.”<\/p>\n

He said 10,000 people were expected but about 27,000 had turned up.<\/p>\n

Vijay launched his party in 2024 and has drawn huge crowds at campaign events ahead of state elections due next year.<\/p>\n

Survivor B. Kanishka said he was “pushed down by the crowd all of a sudden”.<\/p>\n

“There was absolutely no space to move,” he told the Hindu newspaper. “I subsequently fainted.”<\/p>\n

Others said poor organisation and an hours-long wait left people restless before the gathering spiralled out of control.<\/p>\n

Another survivor, identified as Karthick, told the paper that the disaster could have been prevented “if people were not forced to wait for hours together”.<\/p>\n

“Poor planning and execution of the programme and lack of police personnel at the spot were also the reason,” he said.<\/p>\n

The Indian Express newspaper said panic spread after supporters who had climbed into a tree fell onto the crowd below.<\/p>\n

In January, 30 people were killed in a crush at a major religious fair in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, and 121 were also killed during a Hindu prayer meeting in the same state last year.<\/p>\n

Eleven fans were crushed to deathin the southern city of Bengaluru in June during celebrations for the local team’s first Indian Premier League cricket title.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. CHENNAI – Police charged three close aides of a popular actor and politician with culpable homicide and negligence on Sunday after a stampede at his rally in southern India killed at least 40 people, officials said. Some 27,000 people thronged a public road in Tamil Nadu state in the hope of seeing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":90510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-90512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nAides Charged After Rally Stampede Kills 40 - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"CHENNAI - Police charged three close aides of a popular actor and politician with culpable homicide and negligence on Su ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/aides-charged-after-rally-stampede-kills-40\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Aides Charged After Rally Stampede Kills 40\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CHENNAI - 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