Chennai police gunned down gangster and repeat offender Raja alias ‘Seizing’ Raja during the early hours of Monday in the outskirts of Tamil Nadu capital. He was arrested by the Chennai police on Sunday in connection with BSP leader Armstrong’s murder.
Raja (49), infamously known as ‘Seizing’ Raja has over 30 cases registered against him and was a suspect in the murder of Bahujan Samajwadi Party leader K. Armstrong. According to police, Raja was at large and he was nabbed from his hideout based on intelligence inputs on Sunday. Police had pasted posters of him in public places after Chengalpettu Court declared him a proclaimed offender.
According to police, Raja was being taken to Akkarai in Chennai for further probe and to recover weapons used to murder Armstrong when the encounter happened on Monday. Raja suddenly took out a country-made revolver and shot at police while he was being taken to recover weapons, a police officer told The Hindu. Police had to counter fire as a self-defence, the official said.
K Armstrong, the Tamil Nadu unit chief of BSP was hacked to death by a six-member gang on July 5. Armstrong, 47, was attacked with machetes, sickles and other deadly weapons near Perambur in Chennai city. An advocate by profession he was a staunch Ambedkarite and a prominent face among the Dalit youth in the state. Armstrong was a history-sheeter and there were seven criminal cases registered against him, in which he was acquitted.