The wife of slain Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader and prominent Dalit activist Armstrong has approached the Supreme Court seeking to support the demand for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into her husband’s murder.
Porkodi, Armstrong’s wife, filed an intervention application in the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by the State of Tamil Nadu, which challenges the Madras High Court’s order that quashed the state police’s chargesheet and transferred the investigation to the CBI.
On 10 October 2025, the Supreme Court stayed the High Court’s order quashing the chargesheet but did not stay the CBI investigation, allowing the central agency to continue its probe.
In her application, Porkodi stated that the case has a bearing on the “national conscience” and urged the Court to ensure a CBI investigation under the monitoring of a Supervisory Committee headed by a former Supreme Court Judge, similar to the arrangement in the Karur stampede case. She also sought witness protection under the Witness Protection Scheme, 2018.
“Formation of supervisory committee is needed due to the fact that various important facts were deliberately omitted in the charge-sheet which have clear nexus with the motive and intent with which this dastardly crime has happened. Various facts which goes to the root of the matter and requires a fair relook in the nature of de-novo investigation since the earlier investigation has been prima facie found deficient and impartial by the High Court,” Porkodi stated in her application.
The intervention follows the September 24 order of the Madras High Court, delivered by Justice P. Velmurugan, in a petition filed by Armstrong’s brother, Keynos. The Court had then directed a CBI probe after finding major shortcomings in the investigation by the State Police, citing procedural lapses and material contradictions in the chargesheet.
Porkodi noted that she had also filed a separate petition before the Madras High Court questioning the State Police’s investigation, but with the case now pending before the Supreme Court, the High Court was unlikely to issue further orders in her plea.
Armstrong, who was a well-known Dalit leader and the BSP’s Tamil Nadu president, was hacked to death on July 5, 2024, outside his residence in Perambur, Chennai, by a group of armed assailants.
(Source: LiveLaw)
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