'Congested residential area': Madras HC refuses nod for burial of slain BSP leader Armstrong in Perambur party office

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Sunday refused to allow the burial of slain Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) state president K Armstrong's body in the party office in Perambur here, stating that the area in which it was located was residential and congested. Armstrong, 52, was hacked to death by a six-member bike-borne gang near his house in Perambur in Chennai on Friday, sending shockwaves across the state.

Justice V Bhavani Subbaroyan observed that a residential place could not be classified as a memorial place without the state's permission, while hearing the urgent writ petition filed last evening by the leader's bereaved wife Porkodi, seeking consent to bury the BSP leader in the party office and raise a tomb over there.

Senior counsel R Sankarasubbu, representing the petitioner, said that the State was being discriminatory as it had allowed the DMDK to bury its leader Vijayakanth's mortal remains in the party office in Koyambedu but was not allowing the petitioner to do the same, the counsel stated.

To this, the judge replied that the DMDK party office was not located in a residential place and had a lot of space to accommodate all those who wanted to pay homage to the late leader.

In this matter, the total area of the BSP party office in Perambur is only 2,700 square feet with a superstructure already in existence, observed the judge.

She said that a situation like that of the Hathras stampede should not occur as the BSP party office was located in a congested area. "If we allowed Armstrong's mortal remains to be buried in the congested space, any untoward incidents like stampedes could happen in future as thousands of his followers would be expected to perform annual rites and maintaining law and order also would become a problem," the judge opined.

Additional Advocate General (AAG) J Ravindran submitted, "Since the BSP party office is in a congested area with residents on both sides and the approach road is also very narrow, the State cannot allow the request of the petitioner to bury Armstrong's mortal remains in his party office."

As an alternative site, a land of 2,000 square feet was earmarked in Moolakothalam where Armstrong's mortal remains could be buried, the AAG submitted.

After the submission, the judge told the petitioner to consider burying her husband's body in the earmarked location and later purchase a large extent of land in a non-residential area to construct a memorial and shift his mortal remains there.

The matter was then pushed to 12 noon for further submissions.