N. Aswathaman, an office bearer of the Tamil Nadu Youth Congress, was arrested by Sembium police on August 7 in connection with the murder of Bhaujan Samaj Party’s state unit leader K. Armstrong. Armstrong was hacked to death with deadly weapons in Chennai on July 5.
A police team lead by Joint Commissioner Dr P. Vijayakumar detained Aswathaman a few days ago for questioning. He was suspected to be part of the several forces that were behind the murder of Armstrong.
Aswathaman had been earlier arrested in a case related to the threatening of a businessman in Ennore. According to sources, he suspected that Armstrong was the reason for his arrest and had developed an enmity towards the latter. The enmity grew deep that Aswathaman believed that Armstrong had worked against him contesting in the lawyers association election. Sources also say that a few months ago Aswathaman had threatened Armstrong at gun point over a multi crore land dispute at Morai near Sholavaram on the outskirts of Chennai.
Incidentally, Aswathaman had attended the 16th day ritual of Armstrong’s death. His social media pages are filled with photos shot at the birthday function of Armstrong’s daughter. Aswathaman is also the son of Nagendran, a history sheeter who is now in Vellore prison. The investigation is also likely to lead to Nagendran.
Sources say that the police will soon question Nagendran and probe his links to Armstrong murder. Nagendran had come out on parole a few weeks before Armstrong’s murder. He tried meeting Armstrong for finding a settlement in the land dispute with Aswathaman. But Armstrong avoided meeting him, police sources say.
The police team had questioned Ponnai Balu, Arul, Hariharan and others arrested in the case. The police have so far apprehended 22 persons including a woman, Anjali, who was a member of the BJP.
In mid-July, one of the key suspects, K. Thiruvengadam, 33, was short dead by the police in an encounter in Chennai as he allegedly attempted to flee after attacking an officer. He was being taken to the Madhavaram lake area to recover the weapons used by the rowdy elements to attack Armstrong.
While film makers like Pa Ranjith and a few Dalit leaders used the killing of Armstrong to highlight the issue of atrocities and discrimination against the Scheduled Castes (SC), sources say that Armstrong himself was involved in many crucial high value land deals and had running disputes with several rowdy elements. Sources also indicate that the suspects arrested and questioned by the police indicate that he was killed in retaliation of a murder of a history sheeter Arcot Suresh who was also from Armstrong’s own Dalit community.
Now Aswathaman’s arrest has led the investigation into to yet another directions with several enemies of Armstrong being in the suspects’ list.
