Chennai, July 17 (UNI) Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale on Wednesday met the family members of slain Tamil Nadu BSP Unit President K Armstrong and consoled them.
Mr Athawale visited his house in the city and paid floral tributes to a portrait of deceased and offered his condolences to Armstrong’s wife Porkodi.
Mr Armstrong was hacked to death by a six-member gang on the night of July five in front of his under-construction Perambur residence near Sembium.
The killing created a political furore across the country and BSP Supremo and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati flew down to Chennai to pay her last respects to him.
Though the State government immediately ordered a CB-CID probe into the murder, Ms Mayawati claimed that the real culprits were not arrested and demanded a CBI probe into the killing.
The opposition parties, including the AIADMK, BJP and the PMK also demanded a CBI probe and also met Governor R N Ravi and petitioned him in this regard.
The CB-CID police, which was probing the case, have so far arrested 11 people in connection with the murder.
Police had ruled out any political angle into Armstrong’s killing and said it was a sequel to the murder of history sheeter Arcot V Suresh in August 2023 at Foreshore Estate in the city.
One of the accused arrested in connection with the murder is Ponnai V Balu–the younger brother of Suresh–who was cited as the prime accused in the case.
The others arrested were identified as D Ramu (38), K Thiruvengadam (33), S Thirumalai (45), D Selvaraj (48), G Arul (33), K Manivannan (25), and J Santosh (22).
While initial reports said they eight had surrendered, police said they were in fact arrested.
Apart from the eight arrested within three hours of the murder, police arrested three more suspects, Gokul, Vijay, and Sivasankar after subsequent investigations.
It may be noted that one of the key accused, Thiruvengadam (33), a history sheeter and involved in the murder Armstrong, was killed in a police encounter on Sunday near Madhavaram in North Chennai.
He and other accused were remanded in police custody for interrogation when the incident took place.
Police opened fire in self-defence when he tried to escape after opening fire with an illegal pistol at the police when he was taken to recover the hidden weapons used in the murder of Armstrong.
