Gokulraj Death Altered into Murder Case

Multiple injuries inflicted on him before he was thrown on track: autopsy report

NAMAKKAL:After seven days of uncertainty over the cause of death of the Dalit engineering graduate V Gokulraj, the post-mortem report has suggested that multiple injuries were inflicted on him, before his body was possibly run over by a train.

With the report of the autopsy, conducted by a team of experts nominated by the Madras High Court bringing to the fore, the cause of death, the police promptly alter the section of the case to 302 of the Indian Penal Code.

“We have altered the section to 302 (murder) of the IPC from 174 CrPc on Wednesday based on the post-mortem report,” district Superintendent of Police S R Senthilkumar told Express.

The autopsy report was handed over to the police on Tuesday, but the contents were not divulged until Wednesday evening.

Sources said that Gokulraj, a native of Omalur in Salem district, who was abducted on June 23 by a gang when he was with a caste-Hindu girl Swathi at Sri Arthanareeswarar temple in Tiruchengode, had suffered multiple injuries on his body before being run over by a train.

His left eyebrow, left ear and left side of the head suffered cut and stab injuries, besides the back of his head was severed with sharp weapon believed to be a sickle, the sources added.

The gang had positioned the body on the track to make it appear that it was run over by a train.

The suicide note found on the body and a video footage being circulated on social media are considered to be the attempts of the murderous gang to divert the investigators, they said, adding the body bore injuries believably crushed by train as well.

Initially, the Government Railway Police in Erode had retrieved Gokulraj’s body, which was found lying on the railway track in Pallipalayam on June 24, a day after he was allegedly abducted by a gang led by Yuvaraja, founder of the Dheeran Chinnamalai Gounder Peravai. A case of suspicious death under 174 of CrPc was registered.

In the meantime, Tiruchengode Town police registered cases under section 363 (kidnap) of the IPC and certain other section of the SC/ST Act.

Later, the case was transferred from the railway police and handed over to the district police following the orders of the ADGP (Law and Order), who also named  DSP, Tiruchengode, Vishnu Priya as the Investigation Officer.

9-Member Gang  Behind Killing

TNamakkal: It has come to the fore that a nine-member gang had operated behind the brutal murder of the Dalit youth Gokulraj, an engineering graduate. Of the gang, the cops have nabbed six persons including a woman. According to Police SP Senthilkumar, “We have arrested six persons in connection with the murder of Gokulraj. They are being interrogated”.

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