The Madras High Court on Monday (July 28, 2025) questioned Greater Chennai City Police for not having complied with even the basic requirement of conducting an identification parade in the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader K. Armstrong murder case despite there being many eye witnesses to the crime.
Justice P. Velmurugan said, most of the criminal cases end up in acquittal only because of the flaws in the investigation and the present case before him was a classic example. He said, availability of CCTV footage of the crime could not be cited as reason to dispense with the identification parade.
How the plan to murder Armstrong was executed
When Additional Advocate General (AAG) P. Kumaresan said, the media too had published pictures of the accused and hence an identification parade might not have been of much use, the judge asked, “Was the media the eye witness to the crime? Media may publish any picture for TRP (Television Rating Points).”
According to the prosecution, Armstrong was hacked to death by an eight-member armed gang in the presence of his elder brother K. Veeramani, driver Abdul Kani, real estate broker Balaji and building construction workers Mohanraj and Suresh at Perambur in Chennai on July 5, 2024.
