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Updated – July 14, 2024 12:17 pm IST
Published – July 14, 2024 12:43 am IST
BSP members blocking a road at Perambur after party State president K. Armstrong was murdered in cold blood by a gang on July 5. Political parties have urged the government to identify the real reasons for the murder. | Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam
On July 5, a group of men wearing the uniform of a food delivery app walked up to a man standing and chatting with a few people on a busy street in north Chennai and hacked him down with machetes. The man who was cut down was K. Armstrong, an Ambedkarite and Bahujan Samaj Party Tamil Nadu president. Eleven people were arrested for the murder. Based on the confessions of the accused, the police said the murder was to avenge the killing of history-sheeter Arcot Suresh last year. Political party representatives have dismissed this explanation and urged the government to identify the real reasons for the murder. At this juncture, here is a look at some of the major cases of murder of political leaders in Tamil Nadu — whether for political motives or as a result of gang rivalry or one-upmanship — and the status of investigation into them.
The brutal murder of DMK leader K.V.K. Samy is, by and large, counted as the first political murder in the State. He was a municipal councillor and president of the salt workers’ union. On the night of September, 20,1956, he was attacked by his adversaries on North Cotton Road, Tuticorin, and left to die. The murder was reported to be the result of enmity between him and another DMK leader R.S. Thangapalam and lorry owner Perumal Nadar. The Tirunelveli Sessions Court acquitted Thangapalam and four of his associates, but convicted four others of the charge of murder and sentenced them to death. The High Court later set aside the acquittal.
People paying homage to Dalit leader Immanuel Sekaran memorial at Paramakudi in Ramanathapuram district on September 11, 2018. | Photo Credit: L. Balachandar
A freedom fighter, Immanuel was a member of the Indian National Congress. He emerged as a key Dalit leader, fighting for the rights of his people. His rivalry with a caste Hindu group, associated with Muthuramalinga Thevar, was said to be behind his assassination. A group waylaid and killed him on September 11, 1957. Thevar himself was arrested, but released without any charge.
K. Padmanabha, founder of the EPRLF | Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives
On June 19, 1990, 15-20 men, armed with light machine guns and other automatic weapons, came in two cars around 7 p.m. to a three-storey apartment at Zachariah Colony, Kodambakkam, where a large number of men of the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) and their families were staying. Their leader K. Padmanabha, 38, and other prominent functionaries of the militant group were into an informal meeting in a flat on the second floor. The armed men sprinted up the narrow staircase and stormed their way to the flat with their guns blazing. In the next four minutes, the armed men belonging to the rival group, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), sprayed bullets on the EPRLF leaders and cadre and lobbed five grenades. Fourteen of them, including Padmanabha and Finance Minister in the defunct North-Eastern Provincial Council P. Kirubakaran, were killed. In November 1997, a designated court acquitted 15 of the 17 accused persons on the ground that the prosecution had “not proved beyond any reasonable doubt” the allegations against them. Judge Arumuga Perumal Adithan convicted Chinna Santhan and Anandaraj of offences under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA). Among those acquitted were former DMK Minister Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan; her husband Jagadeesan; former Home Secretary R. Nagarajan; MDMK leader V. Gopalsamy’s brother V. Ravichandran; and advocate D. Veerasekaran.
A picture of Rajiv Gandhi taken moments before his assassination. | Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives
This is perhaps the most high-profile murder of a politician on Indian soil. On the night of May 21, 1991, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated at a political rally at Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, by a woman suicide bomber. Thenmozhi Rajaratnam, alias Dhanu, a member of the LTTE, activated the bomb wrapped around her body while pretending to touch Gandhi’s feet. At least 14 others, including the assassin, were killed. The Special Investigation Team confirmed the role of the LTTE in the assassination. In 1998, the special court for TADA cases sentenced all 26 accused to death. However, on appeal, the Supreme Court sentenced only four accused persons to death and the others were awarded various jail terms. The death sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. In 2022, the court ordered the premature release of all seven convicts: Nalini Sriharan; A.G. Perarivalan; Ravichandran; Santhan; Murugan; Robert Payas; and Jayakumar.
Elumalai Naicker, a front-ranking leader of the MDMK, was assigned police security. Yet, he was attacked by an armed gang when he was talking to a friend at Royapuram in April 1994. The murder was the fallout of a fight between two gangs for controlling truck operations in the harbour, the media reported. Subsequently, DMK MLA R. Mathivanan and three others were discharged from the case.
CPI(M) activists staging a road-roko in 1997 on the EVR Salai, protesting against the murder of Leelavathi in Madurai. | Photo Credit: V. Ganesan
On April, 23,1997, Leelavathi, a CPI(M) councillor of the Madurai Corporation, was returning from a ration shop, while her husband was discussing with a few others how to celebrate May Day. Hearing a commotion a few metres away, they rushed there to find Leelavathi’s throat slashed. There was no possibility of survival from the wound. In September 1996, Leelavathi was elected the councillor for Ward 59 at Villapuram. She had mobilised residents of the neighbourhood and raised her voice against the extortion from petty shop-owners by political parties. The police arrested six DMK men in the case. Maradu, alias Nallamarudu, the prime accused, was sentenced to life imprisonment. Maradu was released, along with 1,404 others, in 2008 to mark the birth centenary of DMK founder C.N. Annadurai.
Former DMK Minister ‘Pasumpon’ T. Kiruttinan, 66, known as Tha. Kiruttinan, was stabbed near his residence by unidentified assailants on the busy K.K. Nagar-Vandiyur Lake Road on May 20, 2003. The murder was a sequel to a factional feud in the party, the police alleged. The next day, M.K. Alagiri, the elder son of former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, was arrested in connection with the crime. A few others, including P.M. Mannan, who later became the Deputy Mayor; Mubarak Manthiri, who later became a councillor; Essar Gobi; and Siva, alias ‘Karate’ Siva, were arrested. However, five years later, Mr. Alagiri and a dozen others were acquitted by a trial court in Chittoor for lack of reliable evidence.
Former Law Minister Aladi Aruna, alias V. Arunachalam, of the DMK, was waylaid by assailants during his morning walk and hacked to death on the secluded Puthupatti Road near Alangulam in the composite Tirunelveli district on December 31, 2004. A rivalry in establishing educational institutions in the district allegedly led to his murder. S.A. Raja, who owned the Raja group of institutions, was arrested. While the trial court sentenced two of the accused to death and acquitted Raja, the High Court handed double life imprisonment to Raja. However, the Supreme Court acquitted Raja, holding that the prosecution had failed to prove the case.
On the night of September, 12, 2002, the inter-State bandits, calling themselves Bawaria gang, gained entry into the house of Congress functionary Thalamuthu Natarajan. It killed him and his watchman Gopal and injured six other inmates, some of them seriously. When the police reached the spot, a sub-inspector saw the culprits walking away. They reportedly walked about 2 km towards a lorry on which they escaped. Ahead of the Pongal celebrations, the gang struck terror in the house of AIADMK MLA K. Sudarsanam near Periyapalayam around 2.30 a.m. on January 8, 2005. As one of them stood outside holding a gun, the other members broke open the front door with an axe and began attacking the inmates with rods. Sudarsanam, who rushed out of his room, was shot dead. The gang escaped with cash, jewels, and mobile phones, after firing at neighbours who had gathered in front of the house hearing the screams. A couple of years later, a special team nabbed the gang in Rajasthan and the trial ended in conviction.
A murder which shook Dindigul was that of Dalit leader C. Pasupathy Pandian in 2012. Pandian was a controversial leader, who faced criminal cases, including murder. He floated his own party, called Tamizhar Arasu, after quitting the PMK. The associates of Venkatesa Pannaiyar, a rival, were cited as the accused in the case.
K.N. Ramajeyam, 50, the younger brother of DMK Minister K.N. Nehru, was brutally murdered, apparently after he was abducted by unidentified assailants from Thillai Nagar in Tiruchi on March, 29, 2012. A police patrol spotted his body in a bush on the banks of the Cauvery near Thiruvalarsolai. There is no breakthrough yet in this case, and it remains an unsolved mystery.
On January 31, 2013, N. Suresh Babu, alias ‘Pottu’ Suresh, a confidant of the then Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers M.K. Alagiri, was murdered by a gang 200 metres from Mr. Alagiri’s residence in Madurai. Suresh was driving when a two-wheeler hit his vehicle. Even as he was trying to get out of the car, he was pulled out and attacked from behind with sickles by a six-member gang. The murder was allegedly committed by ‘Attack’ Pandi, another confidant of Mr. Alagiri, and others owing to intra-party rivalry.
V. Ramalingam | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Five years ago, V. Ramalingam, 48, of Kumbakonam, the PMK’s Thirubhuvanam town secretary, was hacked to death by a gang of Muslims after he allegedly interfered in their religious propagation activities. The National Investigation Agency filed a charge sheet against 19 men who were involved in this murder and is yet to trace five other suspects.
The half-burnt body of K.P.K. Jeyakumar Dhanasingh, the head of the Congress Tirunelveli (East) unit, was found on May 4 this year at his farm at Karaichuthupudur near Tisayanvilai. Jeyakumar disappeared from his house on May 2 and a man-missing complaint was filed. He had left a couple of letters about death threats and alleging that senior Congress leaders had asked him to spend money for elections, but he was not compensated. The leaders named in the letter were interrogated. His death prompted speculation since it was alleged that Jeyakumar’s body was found bound with ropes. The investigation is still under way.
murder / Tamil Nadu / police / state politics / Bahujan Samaj Party / Communist Party of India -Marxist / Communist Party of India / Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam / All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
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