The last few years have been unusual in India’s business history. Never before have so many businessmen seen the insides of jail so often. The procession of suited gentlemen heading for the cooler began in January 2009, when Satyam Computers’ B Ramalinga Raju, much awarded for “corporate governance”, confessed to financial fraud and went in. Soon, there was another rush as scam after scam tumbled out of the UPA government’s closet. Among the early entrants to Delhi’s infamous Tihar Jail were Sanjay Chandra of Unitech Wireless, three executives of the Anil Ambani group, including group managing director Gautam Doshi, Shahid Balwa of DB Realty, Vinod Goenka of Swan Telecom, and Sharad Kumar, CEO of Kalaignar TV. Bringing up the rear this year were Subrata Roy, boss of the controversial Sahara Group (still in jail), who went in for sustained defiance of the Supreme Court’s orders, and Jignesh Shah, also still inside, for allegedly indulging in dubious practices with his commodity exchange.
(This story appears in the 05 September, 2014 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)