CHENNAI: The arrest of Saravana Bhavan restuarant group’s managing director P R Shivakumar is a case that gives one a sense of deja vu. More than the news of a wealthy businessman trying his hands at human trafficking to slash the salary bills in his overseas establishments, it is brand ‘Saravana Bhavan’ that makes many wonder:Won’t things change with the generations? Or, as some may ask, ‘like father, like son?’ Shivakumar’s father, P Rajagopal, was in the thick of a controversy he is still not out of it completely in 2001 when he was arrested in connection with a murder case. But it was the motive that made the local media take notice. His past was raked up and he was presented as a man who coveted the wives of his employees and other men.
Prince Shantakumar, who was taken to Kodaikanal and killed allegedly by Rajagopal’s henchmen. Shantakumar was then married to Jeevajothi, a woman with whom the restuarant owner was suspected of having an affair. In a bid to escape from the clutches of Rajagopal she was said to have opted for marriage. However, he reportedly continued to stalk her.
After Jeevajothi met the police commissioner and filed a complaint, Rajagopal hogged the covers of most local magazines that churned out salacious stories of his previous peccadilloes.
These stories spoke about his alleged ties with his employees’ wives and also how Krithika the woman Rajagopal took as his second wife before building a mansion for her in the city was also the wife of a former employee. A Tamil news magazine even tracked down Kritika’s former husband, who was found working as a cook in a rundown eatery in an obscure town.
It was then that it was reported that employees of Saravana Bhavan were exploited and some of them were unduly favoured too. With Rajagopal spending time in jail or in fighting the case, his sons, born to the first wife, came into the business and took charge.
The group now has more than a score of eateries abroad, including in the US, UK, Malaysia and in the Gulf.
Shivakumar, who has been arrested for producing forged documents to obtain US visas for four of cooks, is the man in the charge of the overseas operations.
In 2005, a cook a master idli maker was deported from an airport in the US when the immigration authorities grew suspicious of the purpose of his visit. Back in Chennai, when he was questioned, he pointed the fingers at Shivakumar. But no action was taken against him. Now with his arrest, stories about him too, are leaking out of the restaurants. But will something happen to Shivakumar at all? Though he has been arrested on the basis of a complaint from the US consulate, how far will the case go? Though Rajagopal was convicted in 2004 for the murder of Shantakumar, sentenced to 10 years jail and asked to pay a fine of Rs 50 lakh, he is out on bail after going in for appeal.