CHENNAI: The city police on Monday arrested S Porkodi, wife of slain rowdy Arcot Suresh, in connection with the murder of BSP Tamil Nadu unit president K Armstrong last month.
Sources said Porkodi had allegedly transferred money to the tune of several lakhs to Suresh's brother, 'Ponnai' Balu, who was among the first arrested accused in Armstrong's murder. While police had initially claimed that Balu put together a gang to avenge his brother's death in 2023, subsequent arrests in the case indicated a far bigger motive allegedly involving murky land deals.
Ten days ago, police S Porkodi arrest, Arcot Suresh, BSP president K Armstrong murder, revenge killing, land deal motive, Ponnai Baluarrested Youth Congress functionary N Aswathaman and his father P Nagendran, a life convict in the murder of AIADMK MLA Stanley Shanmugam in 1997.
Police sources said Nagendran and Aswathaman had an enmity with Armstrong over a multi-crore land deal near Sholavaram and also over scrap business in Tiruvallur district. A few months ago, while out on parole, Nagendran had attempted to hold peace talks with Armstrong, but it did not materialise.
So far, political functionaries from DMK, BJP, AIADMK, TMC(M) have been arrested in connection with Armstrong's murder.
Police have also arrested T Pradeep (29), a former Home Guard volunteer with the city police, and B Siva (35) of Mathur, an advocate, said to be a close associate of a notorious history-sheeter who is under the police scanner in connection with Armstrong's murder.
So far, 24 people have been arrested in connection with Armstrong's murder. One of them, K Thiruvengadam (33), was killed in an early morning "encounter" on July 14 near Madhavaram.