"They Were Under Influence Of Demon Called Caste": Madras HC Upholds Conviction For ‘Honour Killing’, Modifies Sentence

The cause behind the murder was an alleged relationship between a woman belonging to Gounder community, while the deceased youth belonged to scheduled caste community. The accused persons belonged to the Kongu Vellalar community.

Noting that there was no previous enmity or any premeditation involved in the matter, a bench of Justice M.S. Ramesh and Justice N Anand Venkatesh observed,

“….They were all under the influence of a demon called as caste”.

The bench in the initial line of the judgment had observed, “This is a case which brings out the dark side of human behaviour. It focuses our attention to the ugly facets of our society; the caste system, bigotry, inhuman treatment of persons belonging to the marginalised section, et al. En-route, this Court is confronted with the now familiar scourge of witnesses conveniently turning hostile in a deliberate bid to derail and deflect the course of justice. Cases such as this are textbook examples of how the criminal justice system can be easily manipulated and won over by witnesses who suborn at the drop of a hat. This has virtually become the norm in high profile cases with the added pressure of the press and social media, the technical challenges posed in proving a large body of electronic evidence. These factors undoubtedly cast an additional burden on the judges who are tasked with the duty of deciding this case. Despite such pressures, the judges must rise to meet these challenges and ultimately render justice within the parameters of the law”.

In the present factual matrix, the deceased Gokulraj (21 years), was an engineering student, who was abducted and was later found murdered, with a severed head. The deceased was last seen with a woman friend at the Arthanareeswarar temple at Tiruchengode, when the main accused, Yuvraj,  along with other accused after seeing them together hatched a conspiracy to kill him.

As per the prosecution, the accused persons intended to make the murder appear as suicide.

The Police registered a case against 16 people, for 'honour killing’, pursuant to which 10 were convicted by the Madurai Special Sessions Court.

While rejecting the claim of the main accused that the Trial Court was influenced by the media reports, the bench observed, “The facts of the present case fall under the category of “honour killing”. Hence, there is nothing surprising for the media to have got into conducting parallel prosecution and parallel trial. This is a phenomenon which cannot be completely avoided in an era dominated by social media added to the traditional media and newspapers. The judges must be mature enough to rise to the occasion and shut themselves from the influence of media and go strictly by the procedure established by law. If the appellants/accused are complaining against the media, to a large extent, it is the own making of A1… On going through the entire deposition and the judgment passed by the Trial Court, it is impossible to accede to the submission of the appellants that the Trial Court was influenced by the media reports and the case was conducted and concluded strictly in accordance with law”.

However, the Court did agree to the fact that the Trial Court could have formulated Section 313 Cr.PC questions in a better manner, but also observed that the fact itself that by itself does not warrant the interference of the Court.

Thereby, the High Court thus modified the conviction and sentences imposed on the accused persons viz., A1 to A3 and A8 to A14.

Accordingly, while pronouncing the judgment reserved on February 23, 2023, the Court dismissed the appeals filed by the eight of the accused and those filed by the State and the mother of the deceased youth.