Saravana Bhavan boss jailed for life

It's the crime story gripping India. B Rajagopal (pictured), owner of the Saravana Bhavan hotel chain, was today sentenced to life in prison for murdering one of his employees and then sexually harassing the dead man's wife. Along with six others, the 59-year-old hotelier was found guilty by a Chennai (Madras) court of killing Prince Shantakumar, who worked for Saravana Bhavan, in October 2001.

Until the murder, Rajagopal had played the starring role in a very Indian success story. Having begun his career as a hotel cleaner in Madras, in 1981 he took charge of his first hotel. Since then, the Saravana Bhavan empire has grown, with vegetarian restaurants and hotels throughout India, and even a branch in New York. If you go into the lobby of any of these hotels, you’ll be able to buy Rajagopal’s autobiography, I Set My Heart on Victory.

It was all going so well until Rajagopal fell in love with Shantakumar's wife, Jeevajothi. With the help of some hired muscle, Rajagopal kidnapped both of them. Shantakumar was last seen being thrown from a moving van. The police later found his decomposed body in a forest: he had been strangled with a lungi, a garment worn around the waist.

Jeevajothi claimed that Rajagopal tried to force her to marry him, and the businessman was also accused of sexually harassing - or, as Indians call it, eve-teasing - her. During the trial, Rajagopal had his bail rights altered for threatening her.

This crime of passion isn’t the only scandal that the Saravana Bhavan hotel chain has had to deal with in recent years. In November 2008, Rajagopal's son, P Shiva Kumar, was arrested for forging documents and running a racket smuggling people into the US. As a result, the chain lost several lucrative contracts with American diplomats. ·