Life sentence for caste outfit leader over murder of Dalit youth

A special court hearing cases booked under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on Tuesday sentenced to life imprisonment all 10 accused, including the leader of a caste outfit S Yuvaraj, for murdering a 21-year-old engineering student V Gokulraj in 2015.

Gokulraj, who belonged to Scheduled Caste, was abducted on June 23, 2015, on the suspicion that he was in a relationship with a girl from the dominant Gounder community. He was found dead a day later. The main accused, Gokulraj, is expected to appeal against the order before the Madras High Court.

Yuvaraj, founder of the Dheeran Chinnamalai Gounder Peravai, and nine others were convicted by additional district judge T Sampathkumar on March 5.

Announcing the quantum of sentence following a request by public prosecutor Bhavani B Mohan, judge Sampathkumar awarded life imprisonment on three counts that would run concurrently to main accused Yuvaraj and his driver Arun. Five other accused were given life imprisonment on two counts, while two got life imprisonment with five years rigorous imprisonment and another person life imprisonment.

Chitra, Gokulraj’s mother, welcomed the judgment saying the verdict should serve as a deterrent to those who indulge in caste killings. “No mother should undergo what I underwent,” she said, outside the court.

“The main accused Yuvaraj has been awarded life imprisonment on three counts. The judge has declared that Yuvaraj should be in prison till his death. All the accused will spend their lifetime in jail,” Mohan told reporters. The judge also asked government authorities to release the compensation amount to Gokulraj’s mother Chitra.

Gokulraj’s murder had sent ripples across Tamil Nadu especially after Yuvaraj used his clout to scuttle the case and went into hiding for over 100 days – he gave multiple interviews to media outlets from his “hideout” in which he almost justified caste killings. The police suffered a major embarrassment when Yuvaraj received a rousing reception at the time of his surrender.

Yuvaraj and his men are accused of killing Gokulraj, a Dalit after they saw him with a girl from the Gounder community to which they also belong. The student was abducted from the Arthanareeswar Temple in Thiruchengode in Namakkal on June 23, 2015, after he was seen with the girl.

A day later, his beheaded body was found near a railway track in Pallipalayam in the district. The girl who was seen with him released a video in which she said they were just “friends” and were “not in a relationship” and that she saw members of the outfit headed by Yuvaraj bundled Gokulraj into a car.

Besides Yuvaraj, S Kumar, P Giridhar, D Selvaraj, M Prabhu, P Arun, S Ragu, R Sathiskumar, D Ranjith, and S Chandrasekaran have also been convicted.

The sensational case has its own twists and turns after which the investigation was transferred from the local police to CB-CID and it was transferred from Namakkal to Madurai after an intervention by the Madras High Court.

After the trial began, 21 of the 72 witnesses in the case turned hostile and the case was transferred to Madurai from Namakkal in 2019. As many witnesses turned hostile, the court depended on statements made by Yuvaraj on a debate on Puthiya Thalaimurai television channel to convict the main accused and others.

The case was also in the news when deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Vishnupriya, who was investigating the case, died by suicide allegedly due to pressure exerted on her with regard to Gokulraj’s murder. However, CBI, which probed her death, said there was no abetment angle to the DSP’s suicide.

Courtesy : Deccan herald

Note: This news piece was originally published in deccanherald.com and used purely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes exclusively for Human Rights objectives.