Dalit youth murder: High Court confirms death sentence for accused

Madras High Court on Friday upheld life sentence (till death) awarded to caste outfit leader S Yuvaraj and nine others for murdering a 21-year-old engineering student V Gokulraj, belonging to Scheduled Castes, in 2015 on the suspicion that he was in love with a girl from a dominant community.

Gokulraj was abducted by Yuvaraj’s accomplices on June 23, 2015 after he was found talking to a girl belonging to the dominant Gounder community at the Arthanareeswarar Temple in Tiruchengode in Namakkal district of western Tamil Nadu. He was killed later after Yuvaraj and others suspected him of being in love with the girl, who is now married.

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Justices M S Ramesh and N Anand Venkatesh, who dismissed the appeals filed by all 10 accused against a trial court order pronounced in 2022, said the prosecution proved its case by successfully establishing the chain of events.

“The accused in this case were under the influence of a demon called caste,” the verdict read. The bench, however, reduced the life sentences of two convicts -- M Prabhu and P Giridhar to five years rigorous imprisonment.

Gokulraj’s murder had sent ripples across Tamil Nadu especially after Yuvaraj, founder of the Dheeran Chinnamalai Gounder Peravai, was the prime accused in the case, 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 too suffered a major embarrassment when Yuvaraj received a rousing reception at the time of his surrender.

In the judgment, the judges said the court examined every evidence presented before it meticulously and was not swayed by media reports or public sentiments.

"We remain conscious of the fact that moral conviction has no place in criminal jurisprudence," the bench said in its order.

Chitra, Gokulraj’s mother, welcomed the judgment saying the verdict should serve as a deterrent to those who indulge in caste killings.

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. A day after abducting Gokulraj, 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.

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.

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.