Gokulraj murder case: Swathi faints inside court, summoned again

CHENNAI: As per the Madras High Court order, the main witness in the 2015 Salem Gokulraj murder case, Swathi, was brought to the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court in Tamil Nadu on Friday.

A bench of Justices Ramesh and Anand Venkatesh asked about the way she was brought to the court to which the prime witness said that there was enough security.

The judges then showed her a video of the duo taken in 2015. Teary-eyed Swathi said that she was not sure if that was her and failed to identify Gokulraj.

The judges, who noticed the differences in her statement, played the video again and told her that 'faith and justice were more important than caste'.

One of the judges added: "You have put your hand on the book and swore to tell the truth. But, now you are giving contradictory answers. The judges said that truth, dharma, and justice are more important than caste and religion. We have sent the audio of your speech for testing."

The prime witness, who was testifying, suddenly fainted and was admitted to a hospital inside the court premises for examination as she is pregnant.

Noting that the truth will be known one day, the court summoned her again on November 30.

The case dates back to seven years when the decapitated body of a Dalit youth, named V Gokulraj was found near a railway track in the Namakkal district of Tamil Nadu in 2015.

The Madurai Special Court on March 8, 2022, sentenced the main accused S Yuvraj, a caste outfit offender and the founder of Theeran Chinnamalai Counter Assembly along with nine other convicts of the murder for life imprisonment.

They filed an appeal in the Madurai branch of the Court against this sentence. At the same time, Gokularaj’s mother and CBCID and CBI parties had filed various petitions seeking confirmation of the conviction of the accused in the case