Dalit DySP R Vishnupriya probing Dalit murder ‘kills self’, friends allege pressure

Yuvaraj of the Dheeran Chinnamalai Peravai, a community outfit, the main accused in Gokulraj’s killing, is still absconding. He allegedly abducted and killed Gokulraj for talking to a girl belonging to the Gounder community.

[related-post]

Activists have accused police of not going after Yuvaraj despite knowing where he was hiding in Karnataka.

Denying that the ‘suicide’ was linked to the Gokulraj case, IGP (West Zone) K Shankar said, “Vishnupriya’s suicide note clearly says that.

People arrested under the Goonda Act in this case were all those who had been identified from CCTV footage. She could not take a decision under the Goonda Act as the district collector is the authority concerned. So she was just an authority to implement it.”

Police had failed to track Yuvaraj as he kept changing his hideout, Shankar added.

In the eight-page ‘suicide note’ recovered from her house, Vishnupriya said police should not be blamed for her death. “I am the investigation officer of (a) sensitive case. Please don’t relate my death to that case.” She added that she loved her job and considered it equal to god, but she was a misfit in it. “I made a mistake,” she said. She also thanked her parents, relatives and police officer K Maheswari, a friend, telling them she loved them and would miss them.

“Don’t give the police any trouble. Don’t go to any political party. Take my body and leave silently. Don’t seek compensation,” she added. “Nobody has done anything to me, you know they cannot :-).”

Vishnupriya hailed from Kondur village in Cuddalore district. Her father is a former police officer. Maheswari said the 27-year-old had called her up at 2.48 pm on Friday, around the suspected time of her death.

“Vishnupriya said she was being pressured to implicate innocent people. ‘How can I remand an innocent person?’ she asked me. Then she immediately cut the call, saying ‘My SP is coming on line’. I messaged telling her not to worry,” Maheswari told The Sunday Express.

Maheswari also said Vishnupriya had told her about receiving a call from Yuvaraj himself about 20 days back. “He told her he was calling from Kannur in Kerala and that he would have surrendered long back had they probed the case ‘properly’. Vishnupriya had recorded the call and sent it to her SP via WhatsApp,” Maheswari said.

Another colleague of Vishnupriya said that she was being urged to name some relatives of Yuvaraj. “She was upset with the way an SP interefered in the case and led the probe in the wrong direction while the main accused remained absconding. Meanwhile, an ADGP warned her that she would face punishment if she didn’t complete the probe,” the colleague said.

On Vishnupriya receiving a call from Yuvaraj and reporting this to the SP, IGP Shankar said, “This is part of the investigation.”

Her parents want her post-mortem to be conducted in-camera, in the presence of a lawyer and private doctor, to prevent tampering of any evidence.

Dalit political party VCK has also demanded a CBI probe into Vishnupriya’s death.