Karur, 28 Sept

Tamil Nadu ADGP (Law and Order) S Davidson Devasirvatham on Sunday said nearly 500 police personnel were deployed for Actor-Politician Vijay's Karur rally where a stampede claimed lives of 40 people.

Referring to the findings of the preliminary investigation, he denied the claims of a section that there was stone pelting during therally.

Briefing reporters while being accompanied by District Collector M Thangavel, the top police officer, said, "In the first petition presented by the TVK on September 23, they asked for the Lighthouse-Roundabout junction for their leader to deliver the address. But, it was rejected as it is a high risk place and if there is a dense crowd, it will be difficult to conduct a meeting," he said.

Again, TVK had petitioned asking for permission in the Roundabout or Uzhavar Sandhai and it was rejected as it is a 'narrow area' and cannot accommodate dense crowd, he said.

Police department suggested a place where another public meeting was conducted by the Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami on 26 September, in which 12,000 to 13,000 people gathered, he said.

"On September 26 they (TVK) presented another petition and received the approval to hold the meeting where it was held yesterday (September 27)" he said.

"As per preliminary investigation, large number of people started arriving at the venue at 12 noon without having breakfast andthey did not have lunch as well. No food or water was supplied to them by the organisers," he said.

"As their (TVK) leader started the campaign behind schedule in the morning, he left Namakkal by 4.15 pm and reached the venue at 6pm (in Karur). It was supposed to be a 30 minute journey. But it took almost 2 hours for him. Since, all the people were standing without food and water since morning, they became restless and anxious," he said.

Some of them were travelling behind Vijay's vehicle and due to this, there was a further delay of an hour for them to reach the designated spot, he said.

"It is at that time incident has occurred. We will investigate what led to the incident," he said.

The police official also clarified that depending upon the crowd, police personnel are deployed for such public meetings. "If there is a loose crowd, one police officer will be deployed for every 10 feet and if there is a standing crowd, one policeman will be there for security for every 5-7 feet. Suppose, if there is a dense crowd, one police man will be there on duty for every 4.5 to 5 feet," he said.

Similarly, he said, one police man would be deployed for 250-300 people if it falls under low-risk category, and if its moderate category, one police man will be there for security of 100-150 people and if it is high risk category 1 police man is deployed for every 50 people.

"For the meeting on September 27 by TVK, nearly 500 police personnel were on duty which include Superintendent of Police, 3 Additional SPs, 4 DSPs, 7 inspectors, 58 sub-inspectors", he said.

Responding to a query, he said the organisers also should extend their cooperation to the police personnel when there was huge crowd like the one witnessed in Karur.

"As Vijay's vehicle was 50 metres away from the speaking spot in Karur, he was instructed by a DSP ranked police officer to stop the vehicle and address the gathering from that place itself. But they did not extend their cooperation and insisted that they go the designated spot," he said.

"For the AIADMK public meeting on September 26, 137 police personnel were deployed. It was orderly crowd, well regulated and after the meeting the crowd dispersed in a smooth manner," he said to a query.

Police deployed for Vijay’s earlier campaigns

Giving some statistics of police deployment for the TVK meetings held in other places, Devasirvatham said 650 police personnel were deployed in Tiruchirappalli as it is a city with an airport.

For the Ariyalur campaign, 287 police personnel were deployed, in Perambalur 480 police were posted, In Nagapattinam there was a deployment of 410 and in Tiruvarur 413 police personnel were on duty.

For the Namakkal meeting on 27 September, there were 279 police personnel, he said.

He also referred to an incident in Namakkal during the TVK campaign in which 34 people suffered 'heatstroke'.

"They were standing for long hours and still four are under observation in the Government Hospital in Namakkal," he said.