Indian actor-politician's aides charged after rally stampede kills 40 | International

CHENNAI, India, Sept 28, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - 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 the politician, known by the single name of Vijay, on Saturday but panic broke out, triggering a deadly crush. Such crowd incidents happen frequently during mass gatherings in India and are often blamed on lax safety measures. 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. "A case has...