Chennai: A video that surfaced after the arrest of former Tamil Nadu school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi Monday night has led to a police case after a man, later identified as Vellore DMK councillor Teeta Saravanan, made a controversial remark linking the arrest to the September 2025 Karur stampede.
The Puzhal Police has registered a case against Saravanan under four sections, including those related to obstructing public servants, intimidation and disturbing public peace.
Police sources said he is absconding, and they are trying to trace him.
Former DMK minister Anbil Mahesh was arrested Monday by the Chennai Central Crime Branch in connection with a Rs 100-crore corruption case involving the alleged collection of money from private schools in exchange for government approvals and clearances.
He was later remanded to judicial custody till 6 November, and taken to the Puzhal Central Prison. As police brought him to the prison, DMK supporters, including Saravanan, gathered outside Puzhal jail, blocked the vehicle outside jail and raised slogans.
In a video clip that was circulated widely on Tuesday, Saravanan is seen near the police vehicle and heard saying in Tamil, “If we had finished him off at Karur that day, this wouldn’t have happened today”. He did not anybody in the video.
Police sources confirmed they have officially initiated an investigation into the remarks.
TVK reasserts Karur ‘pre-planned’
Teeta Saravanan, the DMK councillor from Ward 12 in Vellore, is said to have close ties with Anbil Mahesh. There are many pictures of the councilor with the former minister on social media.
Ruling TVK leaders and their supporters have seized on the video as evidence supporting their longstanding claim that the stampede on 27 September 2025 at Karur was a pre-planned tragedy engineered by DMK elements for political gain.
Law Minister CTR Nirmal Kumar claimed the remarks made it clear the Karur tragedy involved DMK planning and that their supporters had now spoken aloud what had been intended.
“This means that they had planned something in Karur and now the truth has come out in the open. To what extent they must have been involved,” Nirmal Kumar told the media on Tuesday.
TVK leaders have alleged the involvement of former DMK minister Senthil Balaji and Anbil Mahesh in “causing” the Karur tragedy. The two DMK leaders had rushed to the Karur government hospital immediately after the incident to visit the victims and meet the families of those who lost their family members in the stampede.
The stampede on 27 September 2025 at the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam campaign rally, addressed by C. Joseph Vijay in Velusamypuram on the outskirts of Karur, claimed 41 lives and left dozens injured.
The tragedy raised questions over crowd management, venue arrangements, police deployment and possible external factors.
The TVK alleged sabotage and political conspiracy involving the then-ruling DMK and local administration. The state government formed an SIT and a one-member inquiry commission, while cases were registered against several TVK functionaries.
Two days later, Vijay, who went on to win the election and become the chief minister, released a video statement in which he described the incident as the most painful situation of his life, and questioned why such a tragedy occurred only in Karur after uneventful campaigns in other districts.
The people knew the truth and it would come out soon, he had said.
Addressing then-CM MK Stalin in the video clip, he had said, “CM sir, if you want to take revenge, do anything to me. Don’t touch them. I will either be at my home or my office. Do anything you want to me.” He insisted his party had followed procedures at the allotted venue and done nothing wrong.
The Supreme Court in October 2025 transferred the Karur stampede investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation, suspended the state SIT and inquiry commission and constituted a three-member monitoring committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Ajay Rastogi to supervise the CBI probe.
The CBI re-registered the case, visited the site, examined topography, security plans, CCTV footage and timelines, and has questioned TVK leaders including Vijay, party functionaries, police and revenue officials.
The probe continues under Supreme Court monitoring, with monthly progress reports to the supervisory committee.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)