10 convicted in 2015 Gokulraj murder case in Tamil Nadu

The Madurai special sessions court on Saturday convicted Dheeran Chinnamalai Peravai's former president, S Yuvaraj, who was the main accused along with nine others in the murder of Gokulraj, a 21-year-old Dalit man, in Tiruchengode in Tamil Nadu.

The Madurai special sessions court on Saturday convicted 10 people including the main accused, S Yuvaraj, former president of Dheeran Chinnamalai Peravai, and nine others in the murder case of 21-year-old Gokulraj in Tamil Nadu.

The court acquitted five people. Meanwhile, the court will pronounce the sentence in the case on March 8.

The Gokulraj murder case is related to the murder of a Dalit man, Gokulraj. He was last seen along with a woman friend at the Arthanareeshwarar temple at Thiruchengode on June 23, 2015. Gokulraj's headless body was found by the railway track in Namakkal district the next day.

The case was initially filed as a suspicious death and was later changed to a murder case, after the postmortem report showed strangulation and a stab to the neck as the cause of death.

The murder case developed further when Gokulraj's family released a phone conversation of Gokulraj with his female friend who was there with him. The woman said that she and Gokulraj were just friends and that he was taken away by a man, who said that Yuvaraj wanted to see him.

She also said the group who came to call Gokulraj had taken away her phone as well. She also quoted that the vehicle in which Gokulraj was taken had Dheeran Chennamalai written on it along with a green and red flag on the vehicle.

Based on the investigation, several people in the case had come forward with information indicating that S Yuvaraj, President of Dheeran Chinnamalai Peravai, a Kongu-Vellalar caste-outfit, was the prime suspect in the case who had murdered Gokulraj due to issues based on caste divisions.