The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to give relief to P Rajagopal, founder of restaurant chain Saravana Bhavan, who had sought more time to surrender citing medical grounds. Rajagopal was convicted and sentenced to life term for the murder of his employee.
Justice NV Ramana on Tuesday rejected the extension of deadline and said he must surrender immediately. Rajagopal was out on bail granted to him in 2009 on health grounds and was directed by the court to surrender by July 7.
The top court had in March confirmed the punishment of life sentence on P Rajagopal for the murder of Santhakumar. Delivering its verdict, a three judge bench of justices N.V. Ramana, Mohan M. Shantanagoudar and Indira Banerjee had held that, ‘Having regard to the entire material on record and the totality of the facts and circumstances, we find that the evidence on record fully proves the case of the prosecution.’
In 2001, P Rajagopala was accused of the abduction and murder of Shantakumar, husband of Jeevajyothi, whom he wanted to marry.
‘He was obsessed with her,’ D. Suresh Kumar, another local journalist, told AFP.
The young woman in question was already married and rejected his advances, but Rajagopal is not a man used to taking no for an answer.
Threats, beatings and exorcisms directed at the woman, her husband and her family over months all failed, and in 2001 — after one failed attempt — the husband was murdered on Rajagopal’s orders.
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