Acting swiftly, the Chennai police filed a voluminous 5000-page chargesheet in the July 5 gruesome murder of Bahujan Samaj Party president K Armstrong.
It was a murder which rattled the entire state with many Dalit political parties and activists ,including ace filmmaker Pa Ranjith ,demanding justice for the slain leader. Ranjith also organized a massive procession and rally to press the demand. The chargesheet against 30 persons was filed within three months before a Magistrate Court at Egmore in the city on Thursday.
Armstrong (52), an Ambedkarite Buddhist who had made north Chennai his bastion, was brutally hacked to death by an armed gang in front of his under- construction house in Sembiam police limits near Perambur on July 5 evening. The assailants, who came in the guise of delivery boys, fled the scene in two wheelers after committing the crime. The investigation into the case was entrusted to the CB-CID and so far 28 accused, including a woman BJP functionary, have been arrested.
The 30 arraigned as accused in the ghastly murder included jailed gangster Nagendran, notorious absconding gangster Senthil @ ‘Sambav’ Senthil, Nagendran’s son and expelled Congress functionary, Aswathaman. Police sources said the chargesheet consisted of 750 pages of documentary evidence.
Of those arrested, one Thiruvengadam, was shot dead by the police on July 14, when he was taken to a north Chennai suburb to recover the arms used in the murder. Police said, the accused had fired at its police team accompanying him in an attempt to flee but was gunned down in self defence. Another accused, Mottai Krishnan, is believed to have fled abroad and search is on for him.
Interestingly, the police have invoked the Goondas Act against 25 of the accused who included lower rung functionaries of the AIADMK, Tamil Maanila Congress, and BJP on the charge of their involvement in the conspiracy and execution of the murder.