CHENNAI: Advocate K Armstrong, the State president of the BSP who was arrested on Sunday, was the second accused in the chargesheet filed by the police on a clash between two groups of students inside the Dr Ambedkar Government Law College in Chennai on November 12, 2008.
According to police sources, the first accused, advocate S Rajinikanth, and Armstrong had orchestrated the violence that erupted on the campus following a difference of opinion between the two groups of students - one from the Dalit community and the other belonging to the Thevar caste.
Police investigations revealed the two lawyers had exploited the differences between the two groups over some posters put up inside the college in connection with the Thevar Jayanthi celebrations that year. The bone of contention: The ‘Dr Ambedkar’ part of their college name was not on the posters.
While Dalit students objected to the omission of the name of their political icon, it would have remained at the level of verbal arguments but for the instigation by the two lawyers, police sources said.
When the chargesheet was first filed in the lower court, the police were asked to arrest the first two accused. Of the total 44 people named in the chargesheet, 11, including these two lawyers, were stated as absconding.
The matter went to the Supreme Court after two human rights activists, K Saravanan and S Prabhavathi, filed a writ petition claiming they were booked under false charges of cheating for approaching the human rights commission on the issue. The petitioners, who claimed to have been present inside the law college premise when the clash broke out, alleged that the police had not taken action to prevent violence due to political reasons.
On Friday last, the petitioners’ counsel told an SC bench comprising justices B Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar that Armstrong, one of the accused declared as absconding, had contested the recent Assembly elections.
The court ticked off the State and asked the Tamil Nadu Director General of Police to file an affidavit on the issue within eight weeks.
Following the Supreme Court’s direction, both Rajinikanth and Armstrong sought bail from the Madras High Court. While Rajinikanth was granted bail, Armstrong wasn’t. He was arrested on Sunday.
Police said Armstrong, who is the Corporation councillor representing Ward no 53 (Nagamalai Ammaiyar Nagar), had control over a group of Dalit students of the law college.
He even supported some of them in their education by providing financial aid, police sources said.
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