A year after the murder of the Bahujan Samaj Party’s state leader K. Armstrong, and a series of arrests by the CBCID in the case, the murder probe has been transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Looked at as a rare intervention, the Madras High Court on Wednesday ordered the transfer of the murder probe to the CBI, criticising the police for not investigating the case properly.
The court called it a “miserable failure” on the part of the police in investigating the case.
Justice P. Velmurugan of the Madras High Court, while allowing a petition filed by Armstrong’s brother K. Immanuvel, transferred the case to the CBI, stating that the police did not adhere to even the basic requirements in investigating a murder case.
In July, while hearing the case, the court asked the police why they did not even conduct an identification parade despite having many eye-witnesses to the crime.
The plan to murder Armstrong and the investigation
The killing of Armstrong, 52, a Dalit leader, by a gang of six men with weapons on July 5, 2024, has left behind several questions on the mystery surrounding his life and death.
Hours after Armstrong was hacked to death near his house in north Chennai, a group of eight men walked into the Annanagar K4 police station and surrendered themselves. They said that they were behind the brutal murder and narrated a story as proof for the killing. The reason was “revenge” and “gang rivalry.” Though their version seemed to be enough proof for the killing of Armstrong, further investigation into the case led to further suspicion and a detailed probe.
Three months after the murder, the police investigation team made a slew of arrests and a few encounters.
The Tamil Nadu police on October 3 submitted a 5000-page chargesheet naming Nagendran as A1, Sambo Senthil as A2 and Aswathaman as A3. The police, by then, had arrested 28 accused in the murder case, while one other accused was killed in a police encounter.
According to the charge sheet, the murderers conspired meticulously and made elaborate arrangements to source, transport and store the weapons used in the killing of Armstrong. It took months for the conspirators to execute the murder, as per the chargesheet.
But before the charge sheet was filed, the police, during the investigation, sources say, suspected three separate motives for Armstrong’s murder. But the police denied that there was a political motive and conspiracy behind the murder, as alleged by the BSP.
As per the charge sheet, Armstrong was killed by an eight-member armed gang in the presence of his brother K. Veeramani, driver Abdul Kani, real estate broker Balaji and building construction workers Mohanraj and Suresh at Perambur.
The prime accused in the case, as per the police investigation, is convict Nagendran, who was undergoing incarceration at Vellore Central Prison in another murder case.
The police had completed the investigation in the case, and the charge sheet named at least 30 individuals. But Armstrong’s brother Immanuvel argued in the court that he was not satisfied with the probe by the local police.
Though K. Veeramani, one of the eyewitnesses and the brother of Armstrong, said that he could identify the accused, the police relied on CCTV footage and did not conduct even an identification parade, for which the court came down heavily during a hearing in July this year.
But the prosecution argued that the police had acted professionally and had issued Red Corner notices to the accused Sambo Senthil, who is absconding abroad. But hearing the plea, Justice Velmurugan said, “The acquittals in India often stemmed from investigative flaws rather than lack of evidence, and Armstrong’s case is a classic example.”
The ruling, however, marks a rare intervention by a court in an ongoing murder trial, which can bring a bad reputation for the Greater Chennai police.