Saravana Bhavana owner P Rajagopal's life sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court on Friday. He will now have to surrender before the court on or before July 7. He and five others were sentenced to life imprisonment by the Madras High Court in 2009. But Rajagopal and his henchmen had managed to get bail. He had served only 11 months in jail despite being arrested on two separate occasions.
Reports from the time say that Rajagopal became obsessed about marrying a girl called Jeevajothi, who was the daughter of one of his assistant managers. Allegedly, an astrologer had advised him to marry the girl. Rajagopal was already married twice—in 1972 to his first wife who gave birth to his two sons and in 1994 to his second wife who, too, was the wife of an employee.
Jeevajothi was the daughter of an assistant manager of one his hotels. She was still in school and had no inkling of Rajagopal's intentions. She fell in love with her brother's maths tutor Prince Santhakumar with whom she eloped in 1999. Rajagopal had begun to stalk her even before her marriage. He continued to do so after she ran away with Santhakumar and gifted her jewellery, dresses and cash. Though Jeevajothi accepted his gifts, she refused his advances. He is said to have helped the couple set up a shop and given them Rs 1 lakh.
But as relations soured, on September 28, 2001, Rajagopal threatened the couple and ordered Santhakumar to severe his ties with Jeevajothi.
According to an article by New York Times, which beautifully details the entire empire of Rajagopal, the couple tried to flee the place. But they were caught by Rajagopal's five employees who were led by restaurant manager Daniel. At a Saravana Bhavan warehouse, Rajagopal beat up Santhakumar severely while Jeevajothi begged him to let them go. After escaping from the house arrest, the couple were again kidnapped by Rajagopal's men a few days later.
Daniel was tasked with killing Santhakumar and was paid Rs 5 lakhs for the task. But instead, he let Santhakumar go and gave him Rs 5,000 and advised Santhakumar to escape to Mumbai. But when Santhakumar contacted Jeevajothi and told her of what had happened, she asked him to come back to her so that they can plead with Rajagopal to leave them in peace.
What followed was a plot worth a dramatic movie. Daniel's treachery was revealed when Santhakumar, along with Jeevajothi and her family, approached Rajagopal again. They were all taken to a faraway village. Daniel took Santhakumar in his car, two days later. His body was found on October 31 in the Western Ghat's mountain range of Kodaikanal. Postmortem concluded that he was murdered—“asphyxia due to throttling.”
Jeevajothi became suspicious when a priest was brought to perform widow pooja on her. She was allowed to go home to where she filed a police complaint with the city commissioner of police.
As the news of the murder spread, Daniel and his gang surrendered before a court. Rajagopal, too, followed suit. Daniel was convicted of murder along with Rajagopal and was also released on bail.
