Gokulraj murder case: Yuvaraj sentenced to triple life term
The Hindu
All other accused awarded life sentence
The special court for cases booked under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act here on Tuesday sentenced Theeran Chinnamalai Gounder Peravai founder S. Yuvaraj to triple life imprisonment in the 2015 murder of V. Gokulraj, an engineering graduate belonging to the Scheduled Caste in Namakkal district.
The body of Gokulraj was found, with his head severed, near the rail track in Pallipalayam in Namakkal district. He was abducted and murdered by members of the caste outfit after he was found visiting a temple with a girl belonging to an intermediate community.
III Additional District Judge T. Sampathkumar, who held 10 accused persons guilty on Saturday last, sentenced Yuvaraj to life imprisonment on three counts. The co-convicts, P. Arun; V. Sivakumar; R. Sathiskumar; S. Ragu; D. Ranjith; and D. Selvaraj, were sentenced to double life imprisonment. S. Chandrasekaran, M. Prabhu and P. Giridhar were sentenced to life imprisonment.
The judge told the convicts that they were sentenced to life imprisonment “till death”. They were convicted for the offences under the Indian Penal Code, including murder, abducting in order to murder and criminal conspiracy. The life sentences would run concurrently.
The convicts were produced before the court for the hearing on the quantum of the sentence. They claimed that they did not commit the offence.
Special Public Prosecutor Bhavani B. Mohan submitted that it was a case of a cold-blooded and planned murder.
The members of the outfit wanted to send out a message. The victim belonged to a vulnerable section, and Gokulraj sitting and chatting with a girl of an intermediate community itself was not bearable to them. The manner in which Gokulraj was executed proved this was not only a crime against Gokulraj but against society, he submitted.
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