TAMIL NADU, (India): A year has passed since 41 people went to a political rally in Tamil Nadu’s Karur and never returned home.
On Sept 27, 2025, a crowd gathered at Velusamypuram to see actor-turned-politician C Joseph Vijay, then campaigning as Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) president.
By the end of the night, 41 people were dead and more than 100 had been injured in a crowd crush. The victims included children.
Vijay is now the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. But a year after the tragedy, the events at Velusamypuram remain under investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
For the families who lost relatives and those who survived, Sept 27 also brings back a far more personal sequence of memories — the wait to see Vijay, the sudden crush, the search for missing relatives and the news that eventually came from hospitals.
What happened at Vijay’s Karur rally?
Supporters had begun arriving at Velusamypuram from the morning on Sept 27, 2025. Families brought children with them as the crowd waited for Vijay.
He reached the area in the evening.
As people moved towards his campaign vehicle, the gathering became dangerously congested. People fell, and some were trapped beneath others.
Police personnel and members of the public pulled people from the crowd and rushed the injured to hospitals.
The Supreme Court later recorded that the crowd crush occurred at around 7.30pm during the TVK political rally.
Forty-one people ultimately died.
Karur tragedy led to CBI investigation
The deaths quickly turned the management of the rally into a political and legal issue.
Questions were raised over the venue, crowd size, movement of people, and safety arrangements. Political parties also clashed over who bore responsibility.
The matter eventually reached the Supreme Court, which ordered a CBI investigation into the tragedy. The probe has continued into 2026.
Vijay returned to Karur nine months later
Vijay returned to Karur as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister on July 10, 2026, his first visit to the district after taking office.
He met families of those killed and handed government appointment orders to relatives of victims.
During the visit, he described the tragedy as an enduring personal wound and announced that a memorial would be built for those who died.
The appointment orders, however, subsequently ran into a legal challenge. The Madras High Court quashed the state government order granting jobs to victims’ families on July 27, holding that the appointments violated constitutional principles governing equality and public employment.
The memorial promised during Vijay’s July visit remains another symbol of the tragedy. Reports ahead of the anniversary said Vijay was expected to return to Karur on Sept 27 and lay its foundation stone.
One year later, the political arguments and investigation continue. For the families of the 41 people who died, however, the anniversary returns to something much simpler: relatives who left home for a political gathering and did not come back. - The Statesman/ANN
