S. A. Raja Biography 
S. A. Raja was an educationalist, businessman, philanthropist and entrepreneur who founded several private educational institutions in his native village of Vadakkankulam in Tirunelveli district. S.A. Raja served the Indian Armed Forces, completed his engineering studies while at service and once retired he moved to Saudi Arabia. Later he returned back and set up various educational institutions in his native village, with the money he earned through civil construction business in Saudi Arabia. He was a man of controversies too, was accused of killing former Tamil Nadu minister Aladi Aruna. He spent many years in jail. He got acquitted later as the high court could not establish that he was guilty.
His full name is Selvam Arulraja. He was born into a middle class family on August 14, 1937 in Ramanathichanputhur, Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu. Selvam Pillai and Soosaiammal were his parents. His father inherited a textile shop from his grandfather, and ran a store in Vadakkankulam in Tirunelveli district. Raja married Margaret Sophia of Kottayam in 1964 and had 5 children. After schooling he joined military service in 1956 and taught himself technical education. He retired from the armed forces in 1970, and returned to his village.
He made a few unsuccessful business attempts in his village and had a brief stint with politics and Indian National Congress in the second half 1970s. His political career was unsuccessful. He moved to Saudi Arabia, and got into construction business which he succeeded. He returned to Vadakkankulam in 1984 and invested in a spinning mill. It turned to be a successful venture, and very soon he set up a series of educational institutions, mostly giving professional courses like medicine, polytechnic, engineering etc. Since late 1990s, he got involved with a few cases, with murder of politician Aladi Aruna creating big headlines in 2004.
Published: October 30, 2018
Updated: October 30, 2018
