Saravana Bhavan Rajagopal passes away

Chennai: Owner of Saravana Bhavan group of restaurants, P Rajagopal, sentenced to life imprisonment in a case of abduction and murder of the husband of a woman he wanted to marry, died in a private hospital here on Thursday morning.

He was 72 and had been suffering from multiple ailments when the Supreme Court turned down his plea for postponing the jail term and ordered him on July 8 to surrender at once.

Accordingly, he surrendered before a magistrate court at Chennai and was told to start his jail term at Puzhal. He was taken to Stanley Hospital where the doctors advised admission. He suffered two heart attacks while at Stanley and his lawyer D Muthukannaiyan moved a habaes corpus petition from his son Saravanan for allowing Rajagopal to be shifted to Vijaya Hospital that had been treating him all along. The Madras High Court granted the relief sought for and the convict was shifted to Vijaya Hospital.

“He suffered heart attack twice this morning and despite the best efforts by the doctors at Vijaya Hospital, passed away around 10.30 am”, his lawyer Muthukannaiyan said.

“He might have lived a little longer if only he was not subjected to all that stress of being shifted from his bed at the Vijaya Hospital to be produced before the magistrate on a stretcher in an ambulance (July 8). He suffered two heart attacks while being admitted in Stanley Hospital and again twice this morning at Vijaya”, the lawyer told DC.

It may be recalled that Rajagopal was sentenced to ten years RI by a sessions court for the abduction and murder of one Prince Santhakumar in 2001. The prosecution charge was that he had ordered the elimination of the man so that he could marry his wife Jeevajyothi, who was the daughter of one of his employees at Saravana. Some reports had suggested that the hotelier had wanted to marry her because an astrologer told him it would bring him immense wealth but others insisted it was a straight case of mad infatuation with the young woman, who spurned his advancements.

Rajagopal appealed against the sessions court verdict in the Madras High Court, where the sentence was revised to life term. He challenged this sentence in the Supreme Court, which after a long delay upheld the life term and set July 7 as the date by which he must surrender for beginning the sentence.

Rajagopal failed to surrender on that date and petitioned the Apex Court the following day seeking extension of time for the surrender, which was turned down. Accordingly, he surrendered before the IVth Magistrate Court in Chennai on July 8, taken from his bed at the Vijaya Hospital in an ambulance. With the courts firm on his starting the jail term, he was taken first to Stanley Hospital for check-up, where the doctors advised admission.