Armstrong murder accused encounter suspicious: Edappadi Palaniswami

AIADMK leader questions police actions in murder suspect's death; demands proper procedures and Cauvery water release from Karnataka.

The general secretary of AIADMK and Leader of Opposition Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Sunday, July 14, 2024 said that the killing of K. Thiruvengadam, one of the 11 persons involved in the murder of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader K. Armstrong, in a police firing incident looks suspicious as the police team seems to have not taken adequate security measures before taking a murder accused to his possible hideout.

While speaking to journalists at Katpadi here, Mr. Palaniswami said that there are certain standard procedures that need to be followed while taking accused out of custody. Handcuffs of the accused and an adequate police team in such an operation are among them. “Based on media reports, it seems the police firing incident shows that standard procedures were not adhered to by the police. Also, the slain accused had himself surrendered to the police after the murder. With all these events in the backdrop, the incident (police firing) looks suspicious,” he said.

Mr. Palaniswami’s response comes hours after murder accused Thiruvengadam, who is involved in three murders, was taken to a hideout where he claimed he had stashed the weapons used for the Armstrong murder near Madhavaram (Chennai) at around 5.30 a.m. on Sunday. “In fact, family members of Armstrong and his BSP cadres were demanding the State government to arrest people who are truly behind the murder. Also, what was the urgency of the police to take the murder accused early in the day to his hideout without proper security measures in place?,” he asked.

On Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s assertion that the State was not in a position to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK general secretary said that the Supreme Court has clearly said in its orders earlier that a certain quantum of water from Cauvery river should be released by Karnataka to lower riparian States like Tamil Nadu every month. However, Karnataka never did it. “Being a member of the INDIA bloc, DMK should pressurize the ruling Congress government in Karnataka to release Tamil Nadu share of Cauvery water,” he said.

Accompanied by former AIADMK Minister K.C. Veeramani, Mr. Palaniswami was here to condole industrialist A.J. Sekar Reddy on the demise of his father at his residence in Katpadi in Vellore.