The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the conviction and life imprisonment given to the owner of the Saravana Bhavan restaurant chain in a 2001 murder case, reported Bar and Bench. P Rajagopal has been asked to surrender by July 7.
P Rajagopal and five others had been accused of murdering one of his employees. Rajagopal had wanted to marry Santhakumar’s wife, the prosecution had argued. Santhakumar was murdered and buried at Perumalmalai in the forests of hill station Kodaikanal.
They were convicted by the Sessions Court for the murder and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. But the Madras High Court increased the sentence to life imprisonment. The convicts then appealed in the Supreme Court, which had granted them bail in 2009.
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