Haldiram owner, four others get life terms

Haldiram Bhujiawala proprietor Prabhu Shankar Agarwal was today sentenced to life imprisonment, along with four others, by a fast track court for conspiring to kill a tea stall owner whose shop came in the way of a food plaza he was building.

Judge Tapan Sen of the Bankshall court sentenced Agarwal and the others, Gopal Tiwari, Arun Khandelwal, Manoj Sharma and Raju Sonkar (all of whom had a criminal record), for attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy and, in one case, for breaches of the Arms Act.

Agarwal, owner of the multi-crore food and confectionery chain, Haldiram — which has outlets in many cities and also in London — had failed to persuade tea stall owner Satyanarayan Sharma in the Burrabazar area here to move out. The latter’s the shop would have spoilt the facade of the food plaza he was constructing. His hired goons had then raided the shop, looking for Satyanarayan, but not finding him, shot his nephew, Pramod Sharma, injuring him seriously on March 30, 2005.

Agarwal, who was in London to open his first overseas food plaza at the time of the attack, was arrested when he returned home two months later. He was arrested at IGI Airport in New Delhi on landing and given to the Kolkata Police.