"If a lower middle class family wanted an outing, a good treat, a place to celebrate something, Saravana Bhavan was the choice," GC Shekhar, a journalist in Chennai, told AFP. "This man sort of democratised restaurants. On appeal, he was convicted of murder and the sentence increased to life, a decision then upheld by the Supreme Court in March.He is meant to surrender by July 7 and spend the rest of his life behind bars. "Rajagopal is an example of how you can really come up in the society through hard work and thinking out of the box," said Shekhar. "What led to his downfall was his weakness for women and his belief that he was so powerful that he could get somebody murdered and get away with it."

Source: Economic Times July 03, 2019 07:42 UTC