2015 Dalit youth murder case: Jail for life to all 10, kingpin gets three concurrent terms

Gokulraj, an engineering graduate from a Scheduled Caste family in Namakkal, was murdered over his friendship with a girl from the OBC community. While 10 of the 17 persons were found guilty, five were acquitted, one died during the trial, and another is still absconding.

The murder of Gokulraj came to light on June 24, 2015 when his beheaded body was recovered from a rail track in Namakkal. An investigation revealed that he had visited a temple with a woman friend and was abducted by the activists of Theeran Chinnamalai Gounder Pervai, a caste outfit led by Yuvaraj. The same outfit had forced Tamil writer Perumal Murugan to withdraw his novel set in the Tiruchendur temple.

Once booked, Yuvaraj was on the run for 109 days until he surrendered. There were many twists and turns during the probe and trial of the case as some witnesses turned hostile, and the alleged suicide by investigating officer Deputy Superintendent of Police Vishnu Priya, a Dalit officer.

The murder case was transferred to CB-CID even as the key witness, Gokulraj’s woman friend, also turned hostile. However, the court found the CCTV footage and forensic evidence incriminating enough to nail the accused.

Gokulraj’s mother Chithra was at the forefront of the legal battle right from the beginning. During the trial, Yuvaraj’s multiple pleas for bail were rejected, including one by the Supreme Court.

For nearly a month, the case was treated as a suicide until the arrest of two of the accused. Police found that before Gokulraj was murdered, the assailants coerced him to record a video and write a suicide note, which were widely circulated on the social media.