Advocates, politicians, Home Guard and henchmen: The motley crew nabbed for Armstrong murder

CHENNAI: Investigation into the brutal murder of BSP Tamil Nadu unit president K Armstrong has taken the lid off the unholy alliance between politicians from different parties, advocates, history-sheeters and at least one Home Guard volunteer so far.

The Greater Chennai City Police have arrested 18 persons until now in connection with the murder of Armstrong, who was hacked to death allegedly in retaliation for the killing of a notorious history-sheeter Arcot V Suresh.

Among the latest in the list of persons to be arrested are T Pradeep (28), a Home Guard volunteer with the city police, and B Siva (35) of Mathur, an advocate.

Earlier, the police had arrested S Malarkodi (52), an advocate and AIADMK functionary, who was expelled by the party after her arrest. She is the widow of ‘Thottam’ Sekar, who was killed by a rival gang over two decades ago. Police sources said that Malarkodi had allegedly transferred a huge amount, running into several lakhs to the bank account of one of the main accused arrested for Armstrong's murder, days before the incident.

Arcot Suresh’s partner M Anjalai (48), a former BJP functionary and category B history-sheeter, was also arrested by the police.

There are several others with political links. They include K Haridharan, a former councillor from the AIADMK who was expelled by the party; D Selvaraj, a BJP functionary; K Sathish, son of a DMK functionary; Hariharan of Tamil Maanila Congress (M), who, too, was expelled by the party.

The city police had arrested eight people, including ‘Arcot’ Suresh’s younger brother ‘Ponnai’ Suresh within three hours of Armstrong’s murder. The police claimed that Armstrong was murdered in retaliation for Suresh's murder in August last year.