Lucknow: Mayawati, the leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), requested on Sunday that the CBI investigate the murder of her party's Tamil Nadu president, K. Armstrong.
She said that those caught thus far were not the true perpetrators and urged Chief Minister M.K. Stalin to send the investigation to a central body to secure justice for the victims. In a rare gesture, Mayawati paid tribute to Armstrong and laid a wreath before his body at a private school in the city's Perambur neighbourhood.
She expressed anguish over Armstrong's death and said the way he was killed, by a group of assailants late in the evening, showed "there was nothing called law and order" in the state.
Stalin must ensure justice for Armstrong and transfer the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), she said.
"Those who have killed him should be arrested -- the real culprits have not been nabbed yet," she said.
The BSP leader further said Dalits all over the state were apprehensive following Armstrong's killing and urged the Chief Minister to ensure their safety, IANS reported.
The BSP has taken the matter seriously, but party workers should not take law and order into their hands, she said.
Armstrong was hacked to death in Chennai on Friday (June 28). The Chennai Police have arrested eight people so far.