Pitchai Rajagopal

Pitchai Rajagopal (5 August 1947 – 18 July 2019) was a convicted murderer, and founder of the Saravana Bhavan chain of restaurants based in Chennai, India. Born in rural Tamil Nadu into a farming family, and with little education, Rajagopal built a global restaurant chain.

In later life, he was convicted for a 2001 murder, and began serving a life sentence in July 2019. Several days after his imprisonment, he had a heart attack and died.

Early life Rajagopal was born in Punnaiyadi, a tiny village now in Tuticorin District, Tamil Nadu, India. His father was an onion seller, and his mother was a homemaker. By 2019, he had expanded to 111 restaurants in 22 countries, employing about 5,000 people. He built a temple in his village called Punnai Sri Srinivasaperumal Kovil.

Murder of Santhakumar On the advice of an astrologer, he obsessively tried to take Jeevajothi, the daughter of one of his assistant managers, as his third wife, but she was already married and rejected him. He orchestrated multiple threats, beatings, and exorcisms against her and her family. In 2001, after one attempted murder, he successfully orchestrated the murder of her husband, Prince Santhakumar. Santhakumar was kidnapped and his body was found strangled a few days later in a resort town in the Western Ghats mountain range.

Life sentence for murder In 2004, a Chennai court sentenced Rajagopal to 10 years in prison for the murder of Santhakumar. Upon appeal, the Madras High Court upgraded his prison term to a life sentence, upholding the lower court's conviction.

Rajagopal was freed on bail for medical reasons while his case was appealed to the Indian Supreme Court. On 29 March 2019, the Supreme Court of India upheld Rajagopal's murder conviction and life imprisonment. He was ordered to surrender to the authorities by 7 July 2019, After transferring from Stanley Medical College Hospital to Vijaya Hospital in Chennai, he died of another heart attack on 18 July 2019.