10 convicts in Gokulraj murder case prefer appeal in Madras high court

MADURAI: Ten convicts, including Yuvaraj, the prime accused in the murder of dalit youth Gokulraj in Namakkal district in June 2015, who were awarded life imprisonment ‘until death’, have moved the Madras high court challenging the conviction and sentence imposed on them by a special court in Madurai recently.In his appeal petition, Yuvaraj stated that the entire case rests upon circumstantial evidence - motive, last seen theory (CCTV footage), alleged extra judicial confession (interview given to a TV channel) and abscondence of the accused and the circumstances relied upon were not proved by the prosecution beyond reasonable doubt. He stated that certain circumstances and links are missing.Yuvaraj stated that the girl who is the main witness to speak about the kidnapping turned hostile. The CCTV footage does not contain any incriminating materials about the kidnapping. The video only shows the deceased and the girl coming out of the temple and the accused and deceased re-entering the temple. There is no circumstance to prove the murder and laying of the body in the railway track.It may be recalled that Yuvaraj, founder of caste outfit Dheeran Chinnamalai Gounder Peravai and his associates kidnapped Gokulraj, an engineering student from Omalur in Salem district, on June 23, 2015, from a temple at Tiruchengode where he was seen talking to a girl belonging to the gounder community. His torso was later found near a railway track at Pallipalayam, the next day.The special court for trial of cases registered under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in Madurai convicted 10 out of 17 accused, while five others were acquitted of all charges. One person was murdered during the trial, whereas another accused is facing trial separately in the Namakkal sessions court.While Yuvaraj was handed down separate life terms for three offences – kidnap, conspiracy and murder, others including S Chandrasekaran, P Arun, S Kumar, R Sathiskumar, S Ragu, D Ranjith, D Selvaraj were sentenced to undergo separate life terms ‘until death’ for conspiracy and murder. Two others were sentenced life imprisonment, besides five years for harbouring offenders.