The Madras High Court on Wednesday transferred the trial proceedings in the 2015 murder case of Dalit youth V. Gokulraj from the Principal District and Sessions Court in Namakkal to a special court, for cases booked under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989, in Madurai.
Justice G.K. Ilanthiraiyan also directed the special court to complete the trial within four months.
The orders were passed on a transfer petition filed by the victim’s mother V. Chitra who apprehended that she may not get justice if the trial was continued in Namakkal. According to the petitioner, her son’s body was found on a railway track near Pallipalayam on June 24, 2015 and she suspected Yuvaraj. Stating that he was in love with a Caste Hindu girl, the petitioner was sure that he would have been murdered by only by a local gang led by S. Yuvaraj. Acting on her complaint, the police too booked a case against the accused.
Subsequently, the investigation was also transferred to the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department. However, the trial in the case did not proceed as expected because the accused continued to threaten witnesses who turned hostile one after the other, she alleged and stated that it even led to change of the Special Public Prosecutor.
The petitioner insisted that all further proceedings in the murder case should be transferred either to a court in Salem or any other district in order to ensure a fair trial.
