V. Chitra, mother of engineering graduate Gokulraj who was murdered by members of a caste outfit in 2015, moved the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court seeking to condone the delay in preferring a criminal appeal against the judgment of a trial court that acquitted five accused in the murder case. The trial court had convicted 10 accused in the case.
A Division Bench of Justices P.N. Prakash and R. Hemalatha condoned the delay of 71 days. Chitra from Omalur in Salem district is preferring the criminal appeal against the judgment of the trial court that acquitted five accused in the Gokulraj murder case.
In March, the Special Court for Exclusive Trial of Cases under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in Madurai had sentenced the main accused, Theeran Chinnamalai Gounder Peravai founder S. Yuvaraj, and nine of his accomplices to life imprisonment. Five other accused in the case were acquitted.
In 2015, the body of V. Gokulraj, an engineering graduate belonging to a Scheduled Caste, was found on the railway track near Pallipalayam in Namakkal district. The members of the caste outfit had abducted the youth and murdered him after he was seen with a Caste Hindu young woman at a temple.
