New Delhi, Aug. 30 -- Three decades spent in and out of Indian courts, mixed with prolonged spells of incarceration in the notorious Tihar Jail in Delhi, would be enough to snap the spirits of normal men. But then Rajendra Sethia was never your average Joe. Which is why, even after a Delhi court set him free in 2019, ruling that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had not produced a shred of evidence against him, Sethia refused to exult. Monk-like, he accepted his acquittal as part of the same cycle of life that catapulted him to untold success and riches in the first place.

And boy, was he rich.

Esal Commodities, which he set up in London in 1977, earned a profit of Rs.1 crore in its first year through sugar, tea and shipping tra...