Edappadi questions Armstrong murder suspect's death in police encounter

CHENNAI: AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) on Sunday expressed suspicion over the death of Thiruvengadam in a police encounter. A suspect in the murder case of Tamil Nadu BSP chief K Armstrong, the history-sheeter was among the eight accused arrested by the police hours after Armstrong was killed near his under-construction house in Perambur on July 5.

While addressing a press meet, EPS questioned, "Why did the police 'encounter' the surrendered criminal? Why did they bring him to Madhavaram in a hurry and why did they not handcuff him?"

This morning, when Thiruvengadam was taken to a spot near a lake in Madhavaram, where the weapons used in Armstrong’s murder were hidden, he allegedly attacked a policeman and attempted to flee. Police reportedly shot him in self-defence. The accused was rushed to a government hospital, where he was declared dead.

Police have officially claimed that Armstrong’s murder was in retaliation 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 Ponnai V Balu, the younger brother of Suresh.

The others arrested were identified as D Ramu (38) of Thiruninravur, K Thiruvengadam (33) of Kundrathur, S Thirumalai (45) of Perambur, D Selvaraj (48) of Thiruninravur, G Arul (33) of Thiruninravur, K Manivannan (25) of R K Pet, and J Santosh (22) of Katpadi.

Apart from the eight arrested within three hours of the murder, police arrested three more suspects, Gokul, Vijay, and Sivasankar, on July 6.

Meanwhile, city police were granted five-day custody of the suspects on July 11 and are presently interrogating them.