A lawyer, he was the state president of the BSP for 17 long years and had a strong support base among the Dalits of north Chennai. The murder of a leader of a national political party has sent shock waves in Chennai and across the state.
Photo: IANS
Long standing state president of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), K Armstrong (52), was hacked to death by a six-member armed gang in front of his residence in Perambur area of north Chennai on Friday evening.
A lawyer, he was the state president of the BSP for 17 long years and had a strong support base among the Dalits of north Chennai. The murder of a leader of a national political party has sent shock waves in Chennai and across the state.
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According to police, he was talking to his supporters late in the evening when the bike-borne armed assailants, two of them dressed up as food delivery agents, attacked him with machetes, leaving him in a pool of blood. He sustained deep cuts in the neck and head and was rushed to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, where he succumbed to the injuries.
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Ace filmmaker Pa Ranjith and a large number of BSP supporters have thronged the hospital on hearing the news. While the body has been taken for the post-mortem examination, police have deployed additional personnel in view of the surging crowd at the hospital.
Police have formed 10 special teams to nab the assailants, who have fled the scene, and Inspector General Asra Garg is heading the investigation. Steps have been taken to collect available CCTV footage near the crime scene to ascertain the identity of the gang that carried out the murder.
He has been a vocal supporter of Dalit students of Chennai’s Dr Ambedkar Law College, where he had completed his degree in 2010. He had financially helped many Dalit students to pursue their law programme.
He was arrested in 2012 in connection with the sensational violent clash in the law college adjoining the High Court campus among students belonging to Thevar caste and Dalits in 2008. It was seen as a retaliation of the latter against harassment and ill-treatment. Armstrong and all the 21 accused students were acquitted by the High Court in 2018.
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