CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday upheld the conviction and life sentence awarded to eight people in connection with the murder of Gokulraj, an engineering student from Dalit community, in 2015 in Tiruchengode on mere suspicion that he was in a relationship with a girl from Kongu Vellalar community.
A division bench of Justices M S Ramesh and N Anand Venkatesh, in its order, said, “There was no previous enmity or any pre-meditation for the accused persons against the deceased. They were all under the influence of a demon called ‘caste’.”
The court said the trial court was correct in imposing life sentences (without entitlement for remission) on eight of the convicts, including S Yuvaraj of Theeran Chinnamalai Gounder Peravai. According to the prosecution, the prime convict Yuvaraj, who was vociferously opposed to inter-caste marriages, saw Gokulraj speaking with his college mate and suspected that they were in love.
No perversity in trial court’s judgment: HC
He questioned the two and after he was not convinced by their denials about their relationship, he abducted Gokulraj and beheaded him after forcing him to sign a suicide note and video-recording it. Though the police filed charge-sheet against 15 accused, the trial court convicted only 10 and acquitted the rest on March 8, 2022, leading to the present appeals.
The HC altered the charges against two others accused to imprisonment for five years. The bench said it found no perversity in the trial court’s judgment. “We remained conscious of the fact that moral conviction has no place in criminal jurisprudence,” the bench said. The order said, “The SC even in subsequent judgments has held that the practice of khap panchayat must be dealt with iron hands.
In view of the same, it was contended that the facts of the present case warrant imposition of death sentence against the accused.” The court said that since the present case is purely based on circumstantial evidence it is upholding the trial court’s verdict.
In order to arrive at a conclusion, the court examined several issues including the series of events leading up to the murder, Gokulraj’s visit to a temple with the woman he was allegedly in a relationship with, Gokulraj’s severed body, motive behind the crime, prime accused Yuvaraj’s, and scientific evidence.
Speaking to the media, Gokulraj’s mother V Chithra said, “My son was very young. After my husband died, I struggled to educate them. All those who were involved in the murder should be punished.” She also thanked the judges, lawyers, VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan and others who helped her in the case.