Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday
rejected the bail plea of the owner of Haldiram Bhujiawala,
Prabhu Shankar Agarwal, who has been sentenced to life
imprisonment for conspiring and attempting to kill a tea stall
owner.
A division bench presided by Justice D P Sengupta
rejected the bail prayer of Agarwal, who was sentenced to
life imprisonment by a city sessions court on January 29,
along with four others.
Pramod Sharma, the nephew of the owner of the tea
shop, which was reportedly blocking the view of the entrance
of an upmarket food plaza of Agarwal at Nandram Bose Road in
Burrabazar area here, was shot at on March 30, 2005. Sharma
was shot in the leg by henchmen of Agarwal and was seriously
injured.
Agarwal's counsel claimed before the bench that the
land in question was in confectionery owner's possession since
1996 and there was no question of him conspiring to kill the
tea stall owner Satyanarayan Sharma or making an attempt on
the life of his nephew.
They also submitted that Agarwal, who owned business
running into hundreds of crores in the city and elsewhere,
would not abscond.
Judge Tapan Sen of Bankshall court had on January 30
awarded life sentence to Agarwal, history-sheeter Gopal Tiwari
and his henchmen Arun Khandelwal, Manoj Sharma and Raju Sonkar
under Section 120 B (criminal conspiracy) IPC besides 10 years
rigorous prison term under section 307/34 (attempt to murder/
common intention).
Tiwari was also found guilty under the Arms Act and
sentenced to seven years in one section and three years in
another. All the sentences would run concurrently, the judge
had said in his order.
Agarwal, owner of the multi-crore food and
confectionery chain which has outlets in many cities and also
in London, had failed to persuade the tea stall owner to move
out of the shop which was allegedly spoiling the facade of the
food plaza he was constructing.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 18:27