Chennai: Tamil Nadu govt has informed the Madras high court that the probe into the alleged encounter killing of Thiruvengadam, a prime accused in BSP leader K Armstrong’s murder case, will be transferred to CB-CID. Advocate-general P S Raman made the submission on Thursday, when a plea moved by advocate P Pugalenthi of the prisoners right forum, seeking to transfer the probe to CBI, came up for hearing on Thursday.
When it was taken up, a division bench of Justice S S Sundar and Justice M Sudheer Kumar questioned how the petitioner, an advocate, who is neither affected nor directly connected to the encounter, can seek such relief. To this, M Radhakrishnan, counsel for the petitioner, submitted that the petitioner approached the court as the director of the prisoners right forum, an organisation working for the rights of prisoners, and not as an advocate.
The AG submitted that the state is awaiting the report of the magistrate who conducted an inquiry into the encounter killing and further action would be taken once the report is received. Recording the submissions, a division bench of Justice S S Sundar and Justice M Sudheer Kumar directed the state to file a status report in three weeks.
Thiruvengadam, who was one of the accused arrested in the murder of BSP state leader K Armstrong, was killed in a police encounter in Madhavaram on July 14. Police have been questioning all 11 arrested suspects in police custody for five days. At 7am, Thiruvengadam was taken to a spot near Madhavaram to recover the weapons they used to kill Armstrong when he tried to attack one of the SIs and escape. A police team opened fire at him.
He was taken to govt Stanley hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead.
