3 more suspects arrested in BSP leader Armstrong’s murder case
52-year-old BSP Tamil Nadu president K Armstrong was murdered on the night of June 5 near his residence in Chennai, eight people surrendered to the police
Three more suspects were arrested on Sunday taking the total to 11, for the murder of Bahujan Samaj party’s (BSP) Tamil Nadu president K Armstrong, a senior police officer investigating the case said on condition of anonymity.
Amidst the claims of a political conspiracy and BSP’s allegations that the real culprits have not been arrested, the officer said that their investigation represents only one motive. “Based on the preliminary investigation, the primary motive to murder Armstrong is to avenge the killing of Arcot Suresh last year,” the officer said.
On August 18 last year Arcot Suresh, alias V Suresh – who had 30 cases against him including five for murder – was killed by a five-member gang in Chennai.
After 52-year-old Armstrong was murdered on the night of June 5 near his residence in Chennai, eight people surrendered to the police, including Suresh’s brother Ponnai Balu. The accused had suspected Armstrong’s role in Suresh’s murder, police said.
The connection between Armstrong, an advocate, a ward councilor and a known Dalit voice, and high profile criminal Suresh which police are probing is a financial scam, a second officer said. Depositors lost money worth ₹2,500 crores to Chennai-based Aarudhra Gold Trading Pvt Ltd between 2020 and 2022 in the scam which came to be known as the Aarudhra gold scam. The interpol had detained the managing director of Aarudhra Gold in Abu Dhabi in December 2023 after the economic offenses wing had arrested 10 accused in 2020. Armstrong had represented a few depositors and demanded they be repaid while Suresh was on the side of the gold trading company, police said.
The Chennai police had arrested Suresh in 2014 but he was absconding after he went out on bail. In 2021, Suresh was arrested during a statewide crackdown, called ‘Storming Operation’, which was ordered following four beheadings in Tamil Nadu in September 2021, said a third police official who was part of the operation. Three of these were suspected to be revenge killings. Suresh, 43, was also the main accused in a 2015 murder case that happened in front of a city court in Chennai.
“Something appears to have transpired when Arcot Suresh was in prison,” said Sandeep Rai Rathore, greater Chennai commissioner of police, while addressing a press conference on July 6. “We are looking into the murder of Arcot Suresh again to ascertain Armstrong had a role in it.” The police did not receive any information on threats to Armstrong, Rathore said, adding he had been acquitted from all seven pending cases against him. “Earlier, he [Armstrong] was a history-sheeter, and then the court closed the cases against him,” said the police commissioner. On the financial scam, the commissioner said that they were investigating all possible angles.
Those arrested so far are- Suresh’s brother Ponnai V Balu (39), Gokul, Vijay, Sivasakti, D Ramu (38), K Thiruvengatam (33), S Thirumalai (45), D Selvaraj (48), G Arul (33), K Manivannan (25) and J Santosh (22). Balu and Thirumalai have eight and seven cases against them. Police have categorised Thirumalai as a ‘history sheeter’ for having a long criminal record. Among the accused, three of them were dressed as food delivery agents when they approached Armstrong around 7pm near his house, which was under construction in the city. They attacked him with sickles and knives. A zomato T-shirt, a zomato bag, three bikes, and seven blood-stained weapons have also been seized from them. The accused have been remanded in judicial custody until July 18.
Armstrong succumbed to his injuries at Apollo hospitals. BSP chief Mayawati who was in Chennai on Sunday for Armstrong’s funeral, demanded a CBI probe.
“The way he was killed shows there is nothing called law and order in Tamil Nadu,” she said. “The real culprits who killed him have not been nabbed.” Ruling DMK’s ally Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK-formerly the Dalit panthers of India) also supported her statement that the real culprits are yet to be named.
“As of now, this is the motive, and the accused have been arrested based on preliminary investigation, CCTV footage, and mobile phone locations. There is no other progress,” the second officer quoted above said.