High Court declines to transfer Gokul Raj murder case to CBI

CHENNAI: The Madras high court has declined to transfer Gokul Raj murder case from CB-CID to CBI.  Closing a petition from Chitra, mother of Gokul Raj, which sought to transfer investigation into the murder of Gokul Raj from CB-CID to the central agency,  Justice P.N. Prakash said, "This court finds that the CB-CID has proceeded with the investigation in the right lines and therefore, there is no necessity to transfer the case to the CBI".

The judge said, "Today, the matter is specifically posted for orders. On account of boycott of courts, there is no representation on the side of the petitioner. However, in Harish Uppal Vs Union of India, the Supreme Court has held that boycott of courts is illegal and therefore, this court heard the Additional public prosecutor, went through the records and passed the order". It was the case of the petitioner that her son Gokul Raj was brutally murdered by one Yuvaraj and other henchmen on June 23, 2015. The petitioner's son went missing pursuant to which, a case in  Thiruchengode police station was registered initially on June 24, last year. Thereafter, the dead body was found between Erode and Aanangoor, in which a case was registered by Erode Railway police. Thereafter the case was altered to an offence under section 302 IPC on July 1.  On the orders of DGP, on September 19, 2015, the case was transferred to CB-CID, Namakkal and investigation was conducted by ADSP of the agency, Coimbatore. While so, the petitioner filed the present petition for transferring investigation to  CBI on the ground that the accused Yuvaraj was threatening Vishnu Priya, DSP, who later was said to have committed suicide. It was further alleged that Yuvaraj was influential in the locality and was scuttling investigation, the judge added.

The judge said it was seen that the test identification parade was conducted for identification of accused Kumar and Yuvaraj. The JM-II has also recorded the statements of several crucial witnesses. Thereafter, the ADSP has completed investigation and has filed a final report, which was taken on file on February 3, 2016 for offences under various provisions of IPC against 17 accused, the judge said.

The judge said, "This court carefully perused the final report and the accompanying documents, including the case diary, and found that there is no serious infirmity in investigation. It is seen that the main witness is Swathi and her statement under section 164 Cr.P.C has also been recorded by the Judicial Magistrate-II, Namakkal. Under such circumstances, this court does not find any serious infirmity warranting transfer of the case from CB-CID to CBI, as prayed for by the petitioner".