CHENNAI:The Greater Chennai City Police on Thursday filed a 5,000-page charge sheet including 750 pages of documented evidence at the Metropolitan magistrate court in the case related to the murder of Dalit leader and BSP Tamil Nadu state president, K Armstrong.
The charge sheet has named jailed gangster Nagendran as the first accused, gangster Sambo Senthil, who is on the run, the second accused and Nagendran‘s son and former state office-bearer of TN Congress and lawyer at Madras High Court Aswathaman as the third accused.
Police said they have listed as many as 30 accused in the case and so far 28 persons were arrested. As many as 63 bank accounts belonging to the suspects were also frozen.
“Apart from the murder of Arcot Suresh in August 2023, different gangs, who had existing enmities with Armstrong, got together under the umbrella of Nagendran and eliminated Armstrong. It was a kind of syndicated operation by different gangs,” police sources said.
Interestingly, Chennai police have never talked about the involvement of Armstrong in the murder of Suresh until the killing of the former.
Armstrong was hacked to death on July 5 near his home while he was chatting with his brother and a few others. Immediately after the murder, five persons including Ponnai Balu, brother of slain gangster Arcot V Suresh surrendered before the police. They informed the police that the murder was a revenge killing to the murder of Suresh.
One of the arrested, K Tiruvengaadam, who was directly involved in the murder of Armstrong, was later killed by police in an encounter.
The murder of Armstrong has led to several conspiracy theories including that of the involvement of gangsters, politicians and lawyers.
The 3 accused
Accused No.1
Nagendran: A life convict at Vellore Central Prison for the murder of former AIADMK MLA Stanley Shanmugam at Vyasarpadi in 1997. He was arrested in the Armstrong case on August 9
Accused No.2
Sambo Senthil: Absconding for the past few years, Senthil alias Sambo Senthil is yet to be arrested
Accused No.3
Aswathaman: Arrested on August 7. Soon, he was expelled from his post of state principal general secretary of Tamil Nadu Youth Congress