Tamil writer Sujatha is dead

The key person behind the development of the Electronic Voting Machine and an eminent writer, S Rangarajan alias Sujatha, has died.

A multi-faceted personality,73-year-old Rangarajan, is survived by wife and two sons.

Also Read: Sujatha's Rang De Basanti link 

Sujatha, who had been suffering from diabetes and had undergone a bypass heart surgery, died of multiple organ failure on Wednesday night, doctors at the Apollo Hospital said.

An electronics engineer from IIT-Madras, Sujatha was general manager (Research and Development) in Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and was instrumental in designing the EVMs extensively used for polls in the country.

He had taken great pains to prove the efficacy of the EVMs a few years ago, when suspicions had been raised about the functioning of the machines.

Sujatha was a pioneer in the field of science fictions in Tamil. He also wrote short stories, novels, screenplays and columns in weeklies.

In his fictions, the writer imagined a Chennai post-2020, where air-taxis and gigolos would be a common affair. He also ventured into areas of child sex abuse, a concept not much discussed by the Tamil society.

With about 100 novels and 200 short stories under his kitty, he served as editor of popular weekly Kumudam.

His columns in Ananda Vikatan, which discussed a range of issues, enjoyed wide readership.

Sujatha wrote screenplay and dialogues for Rajnikanth-starrer film Sivaji --The Boss and under-production film Dasavataram featuring Kamal Haasan.