Madras High Court Orders CBI Probe Into BSP Leader K Armstrong's Murder Case

Chennai: More than a year after K Armstrong, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Tamil Nadu unit president, was publicly murdered by a gang in Chennai, the Madras High Court on Wednesday ordered a CBI probe into the case. The Greater Chennai City Police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by a Joint Commissioner of Police had had already arrested several accused in the case and even filed an over 7,800 page charge-sheet against 30 persons arraigned as accused in the case. One of the accused was also gunned down in an alleged police encounter.

However, Justice P Velmurugan was not convinced with the investigation. Passing orders on a petition by Armstrong’s brother Immanuel, the judge held the Chennai police had not investigated the case properly and transferred the probe to the CBI. Earlier in July, the judge had faulted the police for not even conducting the “identification parade” of the accused in the case, though several witnesses had seen the murder. While the police had submitted that they did not conduct an identification parade as the murder was captured on CCTV, the judge had pointed out most criminal cases ended up in acquittal of the accused only because of the basic flaws in investigation.

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An eight-member gang had hacked to death Armstrong near a construction site in north Chennai. Armstrong’s brother Veeramani was also injured in the incident.

According to the police chargesheet, the murder plan was hatched inside the Vellore Central Prison by a gangster Nagendran, who is undergoing conviction in a criminal case. The murder was a fallout over gang rivalry. A key accused ‘Shambhava’ Senthil, an advocate, has been declared absconding along with another accused ‘Mottai’ Krishnan. Presently, 27 of the accused have been jailed and detained under the Goondas Act.