CHENNAI: After a procession that went on for eight hours, featuring thousands of mourners, the mortal remains of Tamil Nadu BSP chief K Armstrong were laid to rest as per Buddhist rituals on a private land belonging to a relative at Pothur in Tiruvallur, around 1 am on Monday. BSP supremo Mayawati, who visited Chennai to pay homage, earlier urged Chief Minister M K Stalin to refer the probe into Armstrong’s murder on Friday to the CBI, alleging the men arrested were not the real culprits.
While senior leaders of the DMK were not seen at the public viewing for the deceased at Bunder garden corporation school on Sunday, the party’s allies, TNCC president K Selvaperunthagai and VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan, along with filmmaker Pa Ranjith, were part of the procession and funeral ceremony.
Armstrong’s final resting space was decided after a court battle, as the deceased leader’s family, led by his wife Porkodi, had initially sought permission for burial at the BSP office premises in Perambur. However, the city corporation had turned down the plea, stating there was not enough vacant land there for the burial.
Porkodi moved the Madras High Court with an urgent plea and it was decided that Armstrong could be laid to rest at a private land owned by his relative T V Latha at Pothur. The village panchayat had held a special meeting and passed a resolution stating people in the neighbourhood had expressed no objection to the move.
Also, there is no water body within a 90-m radius, said Additional Advocate General J Ravindran. The permission was granted under Section 7 of the TN Village Panchayat (Provision of Burial and Burning Grounds) Rules, 1999.
The Chennai police have so far arrested 11 suspects in the murder case.