Gokulraj Murder Case: Dheeran Chinnamalai Peravai's Ex-President Yuvaraj & 9 Others Convicted By Special Sessions Court

Of all 15 arrested persons, five of them were acquitted in the case.

The deceased Gokulraj | Credit: ABP Nadu

Chennai: The Madurai Special Sessions Court on Saturday convicted Dheeran Chinnamalai Peravai's Former President Yuvaraj and nine others in Gokulraj murder case. Of all 15 arrested persons, five of them were acquitted in the case. 

The acquitted persons are Sankar, Arulsenthil, Suresh, Selvakumar and Thanga Durai were acquitted. The punishment details of the case are to be delivered on March 8, 2022.

The government counsel Mohan said, "This is a clear case of caste killing. All the 10 accused have been convicted under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. The punishment will be delivered on March 5. This is a historic judgment"

The case pertains to the abduction and murder of a 21-year-old youth Gokulraj in 2015.

Timeline of the case

On June 23, 2015, a Dalit youngster Gokulraj was last seen with a female friend from Gounder community at Tiruchengode Arthanareeshwarar temple. After that some men of Yuvaraj, who was the then President of Dheeran Chinnamalai Peravai which is a Kongu Vellalar outfit, reportedly took Gokulraj to meet the party chief and abducted him.

A day later only a body without a head was found on railway track in Namakkal district. The police sent the body for post-mortem and the autopsy report said that Gokulraj was strangulated and stabbed to death. 

In an audio clip released by the family after the demise, the girl who accompanied Gokulraj a day before his death said that she was just a friend to Gokulraj and he was last called out by a middle-aged man to see Yuvaraj. The girl said that the vehicle also had the name "Dheeran Chinnamalai" written on it with a green and red flag.

Following this, police arrested the accused in the case and two of them Sankar and Kumar confessed of the caste killing before a court in Srivaikundam. 

In the modus operandi used to murder the youth, the accused said Yuvaraj with Kumar and Arun, Namakkal district president of Dheeran Chinnamalai, abducted Gokulraj. Later, they took him to Sankagiri in Yuvaraj's car and in between they were joined by Sankar, Arulsenthil and Selvakumar. 

Then Yuvaraj strangulated Gokulraj with a cloth while Kumar, Arun and Sankar held his limbs. Later, they disposed the body at a railway track near SPB Colony in Pallipalayam.

However, after the confession, Yuvaraj went into hiding but he kept releasing audio messages and gave interviews to media in which he continued to propagate casteist tones. He also alleged that he was falsely accused in the case.

Amid the tension, DSP Vishnupriya who was investigating the case killed herself in her residence in Tiruchengode on September 18, 2015. The friends of Vishnupriya said that she took the extreme step due to the pressure of senior officials in the case. Yet, Vishnupriya's suicide note said that her death does not have anything to do with the case.

Then TN CM Jayalalithaa shifted the Gokulraj murder case to CB-CID on September 21, 2015.

Vishnupriya's father M Ravi also filed a petition in Madras High Court demanding a CBI investigation into the death of her daughter since he suspected it to be a murder. 

A few days later, Yuvaraj, the prime accused, surrendered at CB-CID office in Namakkal on October 11, 2015. He surrendered before the CBI office in the presence of hundreds of his supporters.