Armstrong murder suspect shot dead by police near Madhavaram in early morning 'encounter'

CHENNAI: In an early morning "encounter" on Sunday near Madhavaram, the city police shot dead K Thiruvengadam (33), one of the eleven suspects arrested in connection with the murder of Tamil Nadu BSP president K Armstrong. Officials claimed they retaliated when he allegedly opened fire at the police team which rounded him up after he fled while being taken to secure weapons used in the murder.

Though there were "deaths by police encounters" in neighbouring Kancheepuram district and in Tambaram city police limits last year, Sunday's incident was the first "encounter death" by Chennai police in five years.

As he was being taken to his house in Manali apparently to collect the weapons used in Armstrong’s murder, Thiruvengadam asked the officials to stop the vehicle to attend nature's call near Retteri lake around 6 am. There, he allegedly pushed the personnel on security detail and took to his heels, claimed officials.

An hour later, police teams led by inspectors Mohammed Buhari and Saravanan rounded up Thiruvengadam, who was hiding in a metal shed in Vegetarian Nagar near Puzhal.

"When the police team tried to apprehend the suspect, he opened fire at them using the illegal gun he had hidden there. In response, the inspector shot at Thiruvengadam in self-defence," said an official statement from the city police.

According to police sources, Thiruvengadam suffered two bullet wounds on his torso - one on the abdomen and another on the chest. He was rushed to a private hospital nearby where he was declared brought-dead. His body was then shifted to Government Stanley Medical College Hospital for post-mortem examination.

Additional Commissioner (north) KS Narenthiran Nayar and Joint Commissioner (West) P Vijayakumar visited the scene and conducted investigations.

Thiruvengadam of Kundrathur, a history-sheeter, was among the eight accused 'arrested' by the police within three hours of the brutal murder of Armstrong near his under-construction house in Perambur on July 5. Police sources said that he was also one of the accused in the murder of another BSP functionary, Thennarasu, in 2015.

Police have officially claimed that Armstrong's murder was a retaliatory killing for the murder of history-sheeter Arcot V Suresh in August 2023 near Pattinampakkam. One of the accused arrested in connection with Armstrong's murder is Suresh’s younger brother Ponnai V Balu.

The others arrested were identified as D Ramu (38) D Selvaraj (48) and G Arul (33) of Tiruninravur, S Thirumalai (45) of Perambur, K Manivannan (25) of RK Pet and J Santosh (22) of Katpadi. Apart from the eight who were arrested within three hours, the police also arrested three more suspects, Gokul, Vijay and Sivasankar, on July 6.

The city police were granted five-day custody of the suspects on July 11 and were interrogating them. As part of the investigation, Thiruvengadam was being taken to secure weapons used in Armstrong's murder.

Conspicuously, Commissioner A Arun had mentioned that "there is no such thing as an encounter" in his press conference on July 8 after taking charge when a media person posed a question to the Commissioner if "encounters" can be expected.

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