Chennai police rule out political motive in Armstrong murder

CHENNAI: City police have ruled out a political motive behind the murder of BSP leader K Armstrong, who was hacked by a gang of armed assailants near his house in Perambur at 7pm on Friday.

Briefing reporters about the murder and the action taken since then, city commissioner of police Sandeep Rai Rathore said police were able to make eight arrests within three hours of the murder. “We arrested them based on credible evidence,” Rathore said, adding that police did not have any evidence to suggest that Armstrong faced any direct threat to his life.

He had surrendered his licensed pistol to police during the model code conduct, and it was returned to him on June 13, the commissioner said.

He said the city police were probing if the murder of Arcot Suresh had any link to the murder of Armstrong and added that police were probing the crime from many angles.

Rathore said Armstrong had seven criminal cases against him, and he had been acquitted in all the seven cases.

Denying the charge that the murder highlighted poor law and order scenario in the state, Rathore said Chennai was adjudged as the safest city by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) last year, and a private agency in the UK also certified Chennai as the safest city in India.

He said the first six months this year saw only 58 murders as against 63 in 2023. “It is a falling trend,” he said.

He said all the 4,000-odd history-sheeted rowdies in three categories were being monitored by police, who have detained 1,192 of them under the Goondas Act between July 2023 and June this year.

Law and order situation in the city was under control, and police were taking all required preventive measures to keep the city safe, the commissioner said.

Noting that security measures across the city would continue to remain high, he said additional vigilance would be mounted till the cremation was over.