A Special Court in Madurai has convicted 10 accused and acquitted five others in the 2015 murder case of V. Gokulraj, an engineering graduate belonging to a Scheduled Caste, whose body was found near the railway tracks in Namakkal district. The court will pronounce the sentence on March 8.
Third Additional District Judge T. Sampathkumar convicted the prime accused S. Yuvaraj, the founder of the Theeran Chinnamalai Gounder Peravai and nine others, who were charged of abducting and murdering Gokulraj. They were found guilty of various offences under the Indian Penal Code, including murder, and for offences under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Out of the 17 accused, 10 were convicted, five were acquitted, while one is facing a trial in Namakkal and one is dead.
The trial in the murder case of the youth was transferred to the Special Court for cases booked under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in Madurai, from the Principal District and Sessions Court, Namakkal following a direction from the Madras High Court. V. Chitra, the mother of Gokulraj had apprehended that she may not get justice if the trial continued in Namakkal and had approached the Madras High Court seeking a transfer of the case.
On June 24, 2015, the body of Gokulraj was found on the railway tracks near Pallipalayam in Namakkal district. It was said that after the youth was seen with a Caste Hindu young woman at a temple, members of the caste outfit abducted Gokulraj and murdered him. The then Deputy Superintendent of Police, Vishnu Priya who was investigating the case, died by suicide. The CB-CID then took over the probe into the case.
Main accused S. Yuvaraj, P. Arun, V. Sivakumar, R. Sathiskumar, S. Ragu, D. Ranjith, D. Selvaraj, S. Chandrasekaran, M. Prabhu and P. Giridhar were convicted. V. Sankar, S. Arul Senthil, P. Selvakumar, S. Thangadurai, and P. Suresh were acquitted. Amudharasu is facing a trial in Namakkal while Jothimani died pending trial.
