BREAKING - Madras High Court Upholds Conviction Of Accused In Gokulraj Murder Case, Says They Were Under Influence Of ‘Demon Called Caste’

The Madras High Court has upheld the life imprisonment of eight accused in the Gokul Raj murder case. The court altered the charges against two other accused to imprisonment of five years.The division bench of Justice MS Ramesh and Justice Anand Venkatesh observed that the prosecution had proved the chain of circumstances that had led to the murder of Gokulraj by the accused persons. Observing that the case was one of honour killing, the court said:“The accused in this case were under the influence of a demon called caste”The court also said that the prime accused Yuvaraj tried to influence the media and create an impression that a false case was charged against him. It observed that judges should be mature to "shut the media" and reach at findings based on purely legal principles.The court in February had reserved its decision on the appeals filed by the 10 convicts and the appeal preferred by V Chithra, Gokulraj's mother seeking to convict five others who were acquitted by the lower court. Today, the court dismissed the appeals filed by the eight of the accused and those filed by the State and the mother of the deceased.Gokulraj, a Dalit youth who was 21 years old at the time of his death, was abducted from Tiruchengode Arthanareeswarar temple on June 23, 2015. The next day, his body was found with his head severed. It was later found that Gokulraj was killed by members of a fringe outfit for having a relationship with an upper caste woman.A special court in Madurai had found Yuvraj, leader of Dheeran Chinnamalai Peravai as the prime accused and convicted him along with nine others with life imprisonment till death without remission in March 2022.The appellants had contended that there was no eye witness to the case and that the prosecution had not followed guidelines to deal with the electronic evidence, i.e., the CCTV footage to prove the appellants guilty using last seen theory. It was also contended that the prosecution had first fixed the appellants as accused and then gone about collecting evidence.On the other hand, Chitra's side argued that it was not merely a case of honour killing but a caste-bigotry murder and that there was enough evidence against the accused. It was submitted that they had interrogated Gokul in the temple to identify his caste and that they had even forced him to pen down a suicide note and recorded a video of him claiming that he had committed suicide because of love failure.The judges had also conducted a personal inspection of the temple to understand its topography and placement of cameras. Since the prosecution heavily relied on the last seen theory, and since the topography sketches produced before the court did not disclose the exact location of CCTV cameras, the court had said such inspection would be helpful in understanding the temple property, checking the entrance and exit points, and seeing the location of the CCTV cameras. The court had also initiated suo moto contempt proceedings against Swathi, the prime witness in the case for making false statements under oath while she was called as a witness to court. The court had then noted that such conduct shakes the public confidence in the judiciary.Case Title: Yuvaraj v Additional Superintendent of Police and other (batch cases)Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Mad) 159Case No: CRL A(MD) 228 of 2022Click here to read/download the judgment

BREAKING - Madras High Court Upholds Conviction Of Accused In Gokulraj Murder Case, Says They Were Under Influence Of ‘Demon Called Caste’

Upasana Sajeev

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