respect to those who died in the accident, the shops in the area closed at 2 p.m. on the day. Investigation The police arrested Dhanasekaran, the areas' councillor who belonged to the opposing DMK party, on 20 December 2005 on charges of spreading rumours. He was charged under IPC sections 120-B for criminal conspiracy, 147 for punishment for rioting, 304 for punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, 109 for abetment, 323 for voluntarily causing hurt and 325 voluntarily causing grievous hurt. It was alleged that he and his supporters roamed around the previous evening announcing that Sunday would be the last day and token distribution would begin by 5 a.m. He argued in a lower court that he was politically targeted and the tragedy was because of an administrative failure. He quoted the transfer of Chennai collector and police officials involved in the case to support his argument. He was granted bail by the court on 26 December. He was charged in Goodas Act before the court could grant bail. He was granted bail by the Madras High Court on 5 January. The government filed a special leave petition against the order in the Supreme Court of India on 27 January 2006, but the court rejected the plea and accused the government of negligence. The court stated that "The incident occurred because of the negligence of your officers. This is not the first time that such an incident has happened in Tamil Nadu. Repeatedly, it is happening in Tamil Nadu for such petty things,". The court also noted that "The incident was because of the officers not making preparations for providing flood relief". M. Karunanidhi, in a statement, claimed that it was a moral victory for the party against the hate campaign run by Jayalalitha and her All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK) government. He said "The Supreme Court, which was approached by the same government, has blamed the Jayalalithaa regime for the stampede. The Supreme Court judges after hearing the two sides has said that DMK Councillor Dhanasekharan was not the reason behind the stampede, but only the Tamil Nadu Government,". The state government appointed a one-man commission under retired justice A Raman to enquire the incident. The terms of the commission were notified on 20 December 2013 by the government that instructed the commission to probe the alleged rumours, circumstances leading to the stampede, find