Madurai Bench of Madras High Court, on Wednesday, November 30, has initiated suo moto criminal contempt of court proceedings against Swathi - the prime witness in Gokulraj murder case. The court observed that she made false statements on oath and so interfered with the administration of justice. The court had sought her reappearance with police protection wondering how a prime witness can turn hostile. A bench of justices MS Ramesh and N Anand Venkatesh were hearing a batch of appeals in the case.
A Dalit youth from Tamil Nadu, Gokulraj, was abducted on June 23, 2015, and murdered. The founder of the caste-outfit Maveeran Theeran Chinnamalai Gounder Peravai, and nine others were found guilty of the murder. The immediate provocation for the murder was that Gokulraj visited a temple with a classmate who was from the Gounder caste. Swathi was the friend who visited the temple with Gokulraj, but she later turned hostile in court and refused to recall what happened at the temple.
On November 25, 2022, Swathi was first asked to appear before the High Court. However, she continued denying that she did not know anything about the murder. Even when the Bench played the CCTV footage from the temple where Gokulraj and Swathi were present on the day of his abduction, Swathi said that the woman in the video was not her. The Bench later observed that she was not respecting the oath and warned her that the court will have to charge her with contempt of court. Following this, Swathi fainted and was taken to a hospital.
On November 30, the judges asked her if she had to make any changes to her statement, to which she said that she stood by the statement.
“Several questions were asked and the responses were recorded, as per the Evidence Act. However, the witness Swathi did not reply properly. She is refusing to tell the truth. Seeing the CCTV, she recognised Gokulraj, but said she couldn’t identify the woman. But we can see that the woman in the CCTV footage is Swathi,” the court observed.
The court noted that Swathi was under distress but that she did not disclose the reason behind the distress. “Gokulraj was murdered because he met Swathi. Why should she change her witness statement? At least she could’ve given the reason. Swathi, who is the star witness in the case, was given time, but she gave us the wrong information,” the court said and ordered that criminal contempt proceedings be started against her. An administrative order in this regard will be issued soon.
The court also observed that several cases are pending at the court because of witnesses turning hostile, and so this instance cannot be taken easily. “If the court deals with this easily, the public will lose trust in the judicial system. If any witness gives wrong testimony at the court, it is necessary to take action against them,” the court said.
The Division Bench ordered Swathi to appear while hearing a batch of appeals challenging the trial court judgement that sentenced the prime accused and nine others to life imprisonment. Gokulraj's mother had also filed an appeal to award capital punishment to the accused.