Karur stampede: DMK MLA V Senthil Balaji summoned by CBI; cases take political centre stage

Chennai: The stampede at the TVK rally in Karur, which killed 41 people, has come back to haunt the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) issued a notice to the party’s strongman V Senthil Balaji to join the probe.

This development comes as actor-politician Vijay has been asked to appear before the agency for the third time, seen as an attempt to bring the issue to the fore ahead of the elections and exert pressure on the fledgling party. Vijay has sought 15 days’ time to appear before the agency citing his party work ahead of the April-May assembly elections.

Balaji being asked to appear on March 17 is a significant development since he was not named in the case by the CBI or in the FIR filed by the Tamil Nadu police. TVK has been wildly alleging that Balaji was responsible for the stampede by pointing to his arrival at a hospital where people fainted at the rally were taken within minutes of the incident.

“I will appear before the CBI on March 17 and provide appropriate explanations to their questions,” Balaji said in an X post on Tuesday.

Investigations into the stampede gained political traction in October when TVK publicly accused the DMK of being behind the incident, which is why the party approached the Supreme Court seeking an independent probe.

Further, in January, state BJP chief Nainar Nagenthiran told a party rally, where Union Minister Amit Shah was present that Senthil Balaji’s role—as the DMK’s strongman in western Tamil Nadu—in the stampede could not be ruled out.

Issuing summons to both Vijay and Balaji, who hails from Karur, is seen as an attempt to bring the issue to the fore ahead of the assembly elections. The BJP and AIADMK have been asking the DMK dispensation to take responsibility for the incident. However, the AIADMK changed its stance and now blames TVK after Vijay began criticizing the party publicly.

The summons will also give enough fodder to the AIADMK and BJP to attack the DMK, which claims it will certainly win the 2026 elections.

During the first two rounds of questioning, sources told DH that CBI sleuths wanted to know why Vijay arrived late at the venue, why he continued his speech, why the rally began late, and why he didn’t stay back when he knew something was amiss.

Other questions included whether TVK expected the crowd to swell and what arrangements the party made for the public meeting. It is believed that Vijay maintained that neither his party nor he was responsible for the stampede and instead blamed the district administration. It is understood that Vijay also told the CBI sleuths that he left Karur for Chennai because he feared his presence would escalate the situation.

Although permission was sought for the meeting to be held between 3 pm-10 pm Vijay’s TVK publicised that he would arrive at 12:30 pm but the actor reached Karur only at 6 pm, by which time crowds had swelled. Eye witnesses told DH in Karur on September 28 that people pushed the other to move forward to go near the bus in which Vijay was travelling so that they can take a glimpse of the actor.