The story so far: The Madras High Court, on June 2, 2023, upheld the conviction of 10 men including S. Yuvaraj of Theeran Chinnamalai Gounder Peravai and the life sentence (till death without any remission) of eight of them for beheading a Dalit engineering graduate V. Gokulraj in June 2015, on the mere suspicion that he was in love with a caste Hindu girl.
Who was Gokulraj?
The 21-year-old Dalit youth V. Gokulraj was a resident of Saastha Nagar in Omalur taluk of Salem district in Tamil Nadu. He had completed Electronics and Communication Engineering course in May 2015 at a private engineering college in Tiruchengode in Namakkal district.
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Almost a month after his graduation, on June 23, 2015, Gokulraj was last seen alive with his classmate and friend Swathi (20) of Paramathi Velur in Namakkal district, atop the hillock of Sri Arthanareeswarar Temple at Tiruchengode when a gang abducted him.
A day later, Gokulraj’s body was found with his head severed on the railway track at South Thottipalayam, near Pallipalayam in Namakkal district, with a suicide note in his pocket.
Based on the complaint lodged by his mother V. Chitra, Tiruchengode Town police initially filed a case of abduction under section 363 of the Indian Penal Code, with Swathi as witness and the Erode Railway Police then registered a case under Section 174 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPc).
Later, the Tiruchengode police altered the case of suspicious death of Gokulraj, into a case of murder. After weeks, the Tiruchengode town police altered the sections to 302 (murder), 366 (abduction) and under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
Why did Gokulraj’s death become sensational?
The death of Gokulraj, a Dalit youth under mysterious circumstances, a day after he was last seen talking with Swathi who belonged to Kongu Vellalar (Gounder) community sparked agitations by various Dalit outfits and created tension in the Western parts of Tamil Nadu.
Although Gokulraj’s body was found on railway tracks, police sources had then said that train drivers did not report of any run over on the day of his death, adding to the suspicion of an attempt to cover up a gruesome murder.
A three-member team from the National Commission for Scheduled Castes conducted a spot inquiry on June 27, 2015.
The murder is viewed as a message sent out by the members of the caste Hindu outfit — Theeran Chinnamalai Gounder Peravai, who seemingly could not bear even the sight of a Dalit youth sitting and chatting with a girl of an intermediate community.
Editorial | Murderous pride: On Dalit youth Gokulraj murder case
Yuvaraj neither knew the victim, Gokulraj nor Swathi. Yuvaraj and his associates who chanced upon them engaged in a conversation in a temple and suspected them to be in love with each other, seized the opportunity to punish the youth from an oppressed community for chatting with the girl who belonged to his (Yuvaraj’s) own community.
Yuvaraj and his accomplices abducted the youth in their vehicle and devised a plan to kill him and stage it as a suicide. Forcibly recording him talk about taking his own life on a mobile phone, they dictated a ‘suicide note’ to be planted later on his body. After strangling him to death at an isolated spot, Yuvaraj severed his head and tossed the torso on a railway track and the head nearby, by the end of the day.
Who is Yuvaraj?
The prime suspect in the case was S. Yuvaraj (now aged 43) who ran an organisation named after the Other Backward Community (OBC) Kongu Vellalar icon Dheeran Chinnamalai.
According to a report in The Hindu published in July 6, 2015, a fact-finding team of the Intellectual Circle for Dalit Actions (ICDA), which included academics such as C. Lakshmanan of the Madras Institute of Development studies and Dalit writers like Stalin Rajangam, said in its report that Yuvaraj was actively involved in campaigns against inter-caste marriages.
Evading arrest for over three months, Yuvaraj continued to release audio clips through social media (WhatsApp) and interviews to television channels from ‘undisclosed’ locations.
After being in hiding for nearly 107 days, Yuvaraj surrendered before the CB-CID team in Namakkal on October 11, 2015.
With a few hundred supporters waiting for him to surrender at the CB-CID office on Salem road, Yuvaraj, who was clad in black T-shirt and ‘lungi’ and wearing a red cap, came riding pillion on a two-wheeler. After arrival, he threw the cap in the air and switched to his usual white shirt and black trousers. He flashed a thumbs-up as members of his caste outfit raised slogans hailing him.
On December 2, 2015, the then Namakkal Collector Dakshinamoorthy ordered his detention under the Goondas Act.
In a case relating to the 2012 emu scam that rocked the Western districts of Tamil Nadu, Yuvaraj was one among the three accused men who were sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment by the special court for the trial of cases registered under the Tamil Nadu Protection of Interests of Depositors (TNPID) Act in Coimbatore, in August 2021.
What happened to the Investigation Officer DSP Vishnupriya?
After furore and demands from various quarters, Gokulraj’s murder case was transferred to the CB-CID on September 19, 2015 by the then AIADMK government headed by late Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa.
On the same day, the case relating to the death of Tiruchengode Deputy Superintendent of Police R. Vishnupriya who was investigating Gokulraj murder case, was transferred to the CB-CID. The Dalit police officer was found hanging in her quarters at Thiruchengode on September 18, 2015. She reportedly died by suicide, leaving behind a note saying her death should not be linked to the case. Her family alleged foul play and harassment by superior officers.
How was conviction possible without any witness?
Six months after the murder of Gokulraj, the CB-CID filed the 725-page chargesheet on January 7, 2016, naming 17 persons as accused in the case with S. Yuvaraj and his driver P. Arun named as accused number one and two respectively.
Noting that the CB-CID has proceeded along the right lines and therefore, there was no necessity to transfer the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Madras High Court, on July 1, 2016 closed the plea moved by Gokulraj’s mother Chitra.
The trial was then transferred to the special court in Madurai from the Principal District and Sessions Court, Namakkal, based on a direction from the Madras High Court.
In September 2020, a three-judge Supreme Court Bench led by the then Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde expressed shock at the “honour killing” of Gokuraj while refusing to even consider the question of bail for the prime accused, Yuvaraj.
On March 5, 2022, the special court for cases booked under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, in Madurai, convicted 10 persons including Yuvaraj and acquitted five others from the case pertaining to the murder of Gokulraj.
Those acquitted were V. Sankar, S. Arul Senthil, P. Selvakumar, S. Thangadurai and P. Suresh. Amudharasu, an accused who was secured later, is facing trial in Namakkal while another accused person, Jothimani died. Earlier in February 2017, Jothimani (40) was shot dead by her husband Chandrasekar (45), another accused in the case, at their farm house in Appanaickenpalayam of Namakkal district, during a quarrel over property dispute.
On the day of conviction, the Special Public Prosecutor Bhavani B. Mohan had said that though Swathi, a key witness, had turned hostile, the CCTV footage played an important role.
Later on March 8, the court sentenced Yuvaraj to triple life imprisonment on three counts. Six other co-convicts — P. Arun, V. Sivakumar, R. Sathiskumar, S. Ragu, D. Ranjith and D. Selvaraj — were sentenced to double life imprisonment. Three others — S. Chandrasekaran, M. Prabhu and P. Giridhar — were sentenced to life imprisonment. The judge told the convicts that they were sentenced to life imprisonment “till death”.
What were the contradictory statements made by hostile witness Swathi?
During the hearing of the appeals preferred by convict Yuvaraj and nine others against the trial court judgment, Swathi who appeared before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on November 25, 2022, maintained that she did not accompany Gokulraj to the temple on the fateful day and knew nothing about the murder.
Swathi who first supported the prosecution case when a magistrate had recorded her statement during the course of investigation in 2015, had turned hostile in 2018 during the course of trial.
Submitting that she and Gokulraj were classmates, she claimed that she was at home that day (at the time of Gokulraj’s abduction on June 23, 2015). Further, she claimed that she had recorded statements and identified the accused persons in the case as per the instructions of the police.
Noting that Swathi repeatedly evaded making a true statement or was denying certain obvious facts during the two chances provided to her (on November 25 and November 30), the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, in a rare decision, initiated contempt proceedings against her November 30, 2022. A Division Bench of Justices M.S. Ramesh and N. Anand Venkatesh observed it was clear that the person who was seen in the video was none other than Swathi (who refused to identify herself) along with the deceased Gokulraj.
After the case was transferred and merged with the contempt proceedings, the Madras High Court, on January 6, 2023, framed charges for contempt against Swathi.
What were Swathi’s initial statements in 2015?
According to a report in The Hindu dated June 26, 2015, Swathi informed Gokulraj’s mother Chithra about the incident who, along with relatives, searched for him. It was after which Ms. Chitra lodged a police complaint about his missing son.
Going by a report published in The Hindu on January 28, 2015, footages of surveillance cameras at Sri Arthanareeswarar Temple in Tiruchengode had showed that Gokulraj and Swathi visited the temple on June 23, 2015.
Cameras 1, 2, 3 and 4 that were installed near the main deity showed the duo entering the temple at 10.52 a.m. There were later seen offering prayers. After 11.50 a.m., Swathi was seen leaving the temple followed by an unidentified man. They were followed by Gokulraj who was accompanied by four unidentified men.
At 11.57 a.m., Gokulraj and the unidentified men had entered the temple again. Temple sources had said they left the temple through an exit that leads to vehicle parking area.
Swathi, in her initial statement, had claimed that an unidentified man asked Gokulraj to come with him as one named Yuvaraj wanted to meet him.
Why did High Court judges visit crime scenes after seven years?
More than seven years after the beheading of Gokulraj, Justices M.S. Ramesh and N. Anand Venkatesh of the Madras High Court, on January 22, 2023, inspected the Arthanareeswar Temple at Tiruchengode where he was last seen and the rail track near Pallipalayam in Namakkal district, where his body was found.
Going an extra mile, the judges took the step as the prosecution had relied heavily upon the ‘last seen theory’ to prove the guilt of the assailants, in the absence of any eye witness.
Justices Ramesh and Anand Venkatesh inspected the temple from 11.40 a.m. to 1.15 p.m to understand the topography of the place. They inspected all eight CCTV cameras, as well as the entrances and exits. The judges also inquired about the ways to reach the temple.
What happened to the attempt to build a memorial for Gokulraj?
On November 16, 2015, the Omalur town panchayat officials, stalled the work to construct a memorial for Gokulraj in the local burial ground at Omalur town without permission, after being alerted by a group of residents in the locality. The officials convinced the kin of Gokulraj to demolish the pillars that they had erected.
His body was buried in the burial ground maintained by the Omalur town panchayat.
Two weeks after the futile attempt to build the memorial, the Omalur town panchayat, in December 2015, declined permission for any construction activity on the burial ground.
Who plotted to murder Yuvaraj?
On June 10, 2016, Tirunelveli city district treasurer of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) M.C. Sekar of Melakkarai in Thatchanallur and his associate Muthuraj of Melapaattam were arrested for allegedly planning to murder the key accused Yuvaraj.
Yuvaraj was then out on bail with the condition that he should sign at Tirunelveli Town police station twice a day.
Based on intelligence reports cautioning that Yuvraj could be targeted by members of Dalit outfits, a special team nabbed the duo.
(Assistance for overcoming suicidal thoughts is available on the State’s health helpline 104, Tele-MANAS 14416 and Sneha’s suicide prevention helpline 044-24640050)
