Armed police personnel and a personal security officer (PSO) have been deployed for the security of the wife and child of slain Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Armstrong, after the party office received an anonymous letter threatening to kidnap their one-year-old child. A party worker told TNM that the letter was received at the office on August 2 with the name of Sathish but did not have any other details. The letter had threatened to kidnap the child and destroy Armstrong’s family if they did not take back the police complaint. The BSP leader, who was also a well-known Buddhist Ambedkarite, was brutally hacked to death on July 5 outside his Perambur home in north Chennai.
Speaking to TNM, inspector of Sembium police station Parthasarathy said that a first information report (FIR) has been registered and an investigation is underway.
Meanwhile, the house where Porkodi - Armstrong’s wife - and their child is residing in Ayanavaram is given police protection. According to reports, two armed women police personnel have been assigned as PSOs for Porkodi and armed police personnel are posted outside their apartment complex.
Tamil Nadu police have arrested nearly 15 persons in connection with the murder so far. One of the arrested - K Thiruvengatam - was killed in the early hours of July 14, in an extrajudicial murder (commonly known as encounter).