MADURAI: The Special Court for SC/ST Cases in Madurai on Saturday found ten persons, including Theeran Chinnamalai Gounder Peravai founder, Yuvaraj, guilty in the V Gokulraj honour killing case. Five others were acquitted. The court will pronounce the sentence on March 8.
A Dalit youth Gokulraj, who was a native of Omalur in Salem district, was kidnapped by a gang, on June 23, 2015, from a temple in Tiruchengode when he was speaking to a caste-Hindu girl. She was studying with him in engineering college.
According to sources, a gang claiming to be policemen took Gokulraj in a car after confiscating the mobile phones of the young students. The distraught girl approached Tiruchengode police who informed her that they had not picked up Gokulraj for inquiry.
Later, his torso was recovered by Erode railway police near the railway track in Pallipalayam on June 24, 2015. Following this, Dalit outfits launched protests alleging that Gokulraj was murdered because he was a Dalit and was in love with a non-Dalit.
Meanwhile, following a writ petition filed by an advocate Parthiban, the Madras High Court ordered a three-member expert team to oversee and videograph the conduct of the postmortem and submit a report.
As the investigation progressed, the CCTV footage recovered by the police from the Thiruchengodu Arthanareeswarar Temple confirmed that Gokulraj was murdered. Subsequently, the CBCID police arrested 17 persons including Yuvaraj.
With the Supreme court stipulating judgments in honour killing cases should be delivered within a period of 18 months, the Gokulraj case trial commenced on August 30, 2018. But the key eyewitnesses including Swathi turned out hostile.
Against this backdrop, Gokulraj's mother Chithra approached the Namakkal District Collector seeking to appoint B P Mohan as government counsel. She also filed a petition before the Madras High Court in this regard. The court ratified it.
After Mohan took over, he moved the court to transfer the case to either Salem or Erode courts. Thereafter, it was transferred to The Special Court for SC/ST Cases in Madurai.
The trial started in the case on May 7, 2019. On Saturday, the court found ten persons including Yuvaraj, as guilty in the case. The court acquitted five others including Shankar, Arul, Senthil, Selvakumar, Thangadurai and Suresh for want of evidence. During the course of the trial, one Jothimani was murdered in a family dispute while another Amutharasu jumped bail.
In a weird twist to the case, the then Tiruchengode deputy superintendent of police (DSP) R Vishnupriya, 27, who was probing Gokulraj's murder, died by suicide inside her official quarters in Tiruchengode in September 2015.
On Saturday, while addressing the media persons, Mohan said that 108 eyewitnesses were examined during the trial and over 500 documents including CCTV footage were produced as evidence.
"Though many important eyewitnesses turned hostile, we did our best to ensure justice in the case."
Following the detailed order received from the court, will make a decision to go for appeal against the five persons who were acquitted, Mohan pointed out.
Gokulraj's mother Chithra said, "I lost my husband when my first son Gokulraj was studying in Class VI. It took a lot of effort to raise my two children. Gokulraj went on to study engineering. My son Gokul did not commit any mistakes except he was born in a Dalit family. Still, my younger son and I are facing continuous threats from unknown persons. My son was murdered at a time when I thought my dreams have come true. Now, I will never stop my legal battle until 15 persons who are involved in this case are punished", she noted.