Madurai, March 5 : Madurai Special Sessions Court on Saturday convicted 10 persons, including S.Yuvaraj, former President of Dheeran Chinnamalai Peravai, a Caste-based outfit, in the sensational ‘honour’ killing of Dalit youth V.Gokulraj in Namakkal district of Tamil Nadu in 2015. Delivering the verdict, Judge T Sampathkumar said the quantum of p shment will be pronounced on March 8. Of the 15 arrested persons in the case, the Judge convicted 10 persons, while acquitting five others for lack of evidence. Those convicted included the prime accused Yuvaraj, his brother Thangadurai, car driver P Arun, Kumar, Sankar, Arul Vasantham, Selvakumar, Sathish Kumar, Raghu alias Sridhar and Ranjith. It may be recalled that a 21-year-old engineering graduate Gokulraj, belonging to a Scheduled Caste comm ty was found murdered on June 24, 2015 at Pallipalayam in Namakkal district after his relationship with an Upper Caste Hindu girl was objected by her family. After a detailed probe, police booked 17 persons in connection with the murder case under Sections 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy), 364 (kidnap) read with 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), 109 (p shment of abetment), 384 (extortion), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 302 (murder), 201 (tampering of evidence), 212 (harbouring offender), 216 (harbouring offender who escaped from custody) of the IPC and Section 3(2) (v) of Prevention of Atrocities against SC/ST Act. During the course of the case, one person died while another accused was still absconding. Yuvaraj also went into hiding and during the absconding period, he released six audio messages and even gave interviews to Tamil news channels claiming that he had no links with Gokulraj murder case. But, in a sensational twist, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) R.Vishnupriya, who was the investigating officer in the case, committed suicide in her official residence at Tiruchengode in Namakkal district on September 18, 2015. Her family member and friends claimed that she took the extreme step owing to pressure from senior police officials in Gokulraj murder case. Then Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa ordered the transfer of Gokulraj murder case to the Crime Branch CID (CB-CID) police investigation on September 21, 2015. Finally, Yuvaraj surrendered himself before the CB-CID police at Namakkal on October 11, 2015. GSM CS1427