CHENNAI: Within hours of the early morning 'encounter' in which a suspect in the TN BSP chief K Armstrong murder case, K Thiruvengadam, was shot dead in ‘self-defense’, CCTV footage of the deceased and the other suspects brutally attacking Armstrong with machetes on July 5 was released to the media.

Another CCTV footage of the suspects doing recce in the neighborhood also surfaced indicating that Armstrong’s murder was well planned.

The suspects are first seen walking and riding on two-wheelers through the narrow lane where Armstrong along with a couple of his aides was overlooking the re-construction of his house. Around 7 15 pm, the gang converged and taking Armstrong by surprise, attacked him from behind and rained blows on him.

“The first attack on Armstrong was made by Ramu alias Vinoth. He was also carrying country bombs. Thiruvengadam was the one who made the second attack on Armstrong,” according to a police source. Both of them were seen walking casually past Armstrong minutes before the eventual murder.

Two men wearing helmets, whom police claim to be Ponnai Balu and G Arul were riding a two-wheeler.

The CCTV footage clearly shows two suspects- now identified as Vijay and Santhosh wearing food delivery agent t-shirts and a helmet attacking Armstrong repeatedly. It also showed that there were at least 10 construction workers and one of the suspects drove them away with a machete.