A Tale of Two Engineers

Rajan Pillai and S. Krishna Kumar were two friends in Kollam. Rajan studied Electrical Engg at TKM Engg College, Kollam and Kumar studied Mechanical Engg at College of Engineering, Trivandrum (CET). S. Krishna Kumar topped the University (his score of 93% in one semester is still a record). Rajan followed in his father Janardhanan Pillai's cashew business. He also dabbled in the hotel business in Goa, set up shop in Singapore, headed Nabisco in London and ended up heading Britannia Industries, in Singapore. In '84 he met a pretty air-hostess called Nina on a flight and married her. Meantime Krishna Kumar joined the IAS, quit it after 17 years and joined politics and became a Congressman at the instance of leader K. Karunakaran. He rose in Delhi politics to be India's Minister of State for I&B, Science and Technology, etc His wife Usha ruled the roost in Mahila Congress. And he famously drew just Re 1 in salary.

By '93 Rajan's business was in debt and he started selling off some of his companies to others including arch-rival Nusli Wadia. The Singapore Government charged Pillai with defrauding the country of $17.2 million. As a court there prepared to pronounce a 14-year prison term on him, he fled to India. He counted on his old friend Krishna Kumar. But he was in for a shock. 

Not only did the India government show more enthusiasm than Singapore in hounding Rajan and extraditing him (his crime, that of siphoning money between companies' accounts, is not even a corporate crime in India!) but he was nabbed from Le Meridian hotel in Delhi and thrown in Tihar jail early one morning. Given to excessive drinking, he now had liver cirrhosis. Nina's frantic phone calls to Krishna Kumar and Usha fell on deaf ears. They would not even attend the phone. Rajan died, in jail, coughing blood, orphaned by the world, aged only 47, in '95. 

Nina Gopika Pillai would have her revenge.
In the '96 Lok Sabha elections, Nina Pillai fought from Kollam on a Siva Sena ticket. Winning was not her goal but defeating Krishna Kumar was. She succeeded as she split the votes enabling N.K. Premachandran of RSP to win. That spelled the beginning of the end for Krishna Kumar's political career. Nina re-married, to her childhood sweetheart and business tycoon Hari Ram Shastri. She had a prolonged court battle with Rajan's brother Rajmohan. The Justice Leila Seth Commission enquiring into Rajan's death reached no conclusion. Nina today sells art and jewelry and raises sons Krish and Shiva. Krishna Kumar quit Congress in 2003. In 2019 at the age of 80, he joined BJP.

(2019)