Chennai: The final five minutes of the 52-year-old Armstrong vanished in a jiffy, close to his under-construction house deep inside a congested residential neighbourhood of Venugopal Swamy Koil Street in Perambur at 7pm on Friday.
The assailants, three of them dressed as food delivery agents, looked their part. They were already stationed at the spot with a backpack, pretending to look into Google maps on their phone. Three others, in pant and shirt, managed to go near Armstrong, calling him ‘Anna’. As Armstrong turned around to engage with the strangers, the men who posed as food delivery agents pulled out machetes from their bags and began raining blows on the Dalit leader. Soon, the trio joined them.
Eyewitnesses say the first hack came from behind and landed on his left cheek. Before Armstrong could turn, the second one fell on his left ankle, the idea being immobilising him and preventing him from running away.
They then shifted their focus on driving away the three supporters of Armstrong his brother Veeramani, driver Abdul Gani and a friend Balaji by attacking them on their head, shoulders and hands.
They pushed the trio into a 10-ft pit dug up at the construction site and continued attacking Armstrong on his back and right hand, when he tried to shield himself. They left him only when he fell motionless, said one of the supporters, who was among the first to rush in to help him on hearing the commotion. The assailants, about half a dozen to nine of them, then made good their escape on three bikes which were already kept on.
The ease with which they came into the narrow congested residential neighbourhood and fled indicated that they had done a recce, say police.
The neighbours kept the windows and doors closed as there was usually noise coming from the site where the concrete mixture was operated daily. The labourers at the construction site would also leave by 6.30pm.
Sources said Armstrong had kept his pistol inside the car, parked a few metres from the construction site.
Armstrong, who lived in an apartment complex on K H Road, Ayanavaram, had been visiting the site around 3.30pm for the past one week and spent at least four hours playing carrom and meeting his supporters at his office, which is located on the street corner. One of the accused, Thirumala, an auto driver, noticed this routine of Armstrong and alerted the assailants. The gang also carried country-made bombs as plan B, police said.
Courtesy : TOI
Note: This news is originally published in timesofindia.com and was used solely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes exclusively for Human Rights
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