Prabhu Shankar Agarwal

Prabhu Agarwal at the Bankshall fast-track court before the sentencing. Pictures by Bishwarup Dutta

(From top) Raju Sonkar, Arun Khandelwal, Manoj Sharma and Gopal Tiwari

Calcutta, Jan. 29: Prabhu Shankar Agarwal, the bhujia king who turned Haldiram’s into a household name, was today sentenced for life along with four others who had conspired with him to kill a tea-stall owner over a small plot of land.

Agarwal, in his late fifties, stood expressionless in the courtroom as additional sessions judge Tapan Sen read out the punishment in what could be his last conviction before he retires on Saturday.

Earlier, the judge had announced to a buzz in the packed courtroom: “Prabhu Shankar Agarwal, Gopal Tiwari, Arun Khandelwal, Manoj Sharma and Raju Sonkar are sentenced to life imprisonment under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 307 (attempted murder) of the IPC.”

Gopal, Manoj and Raju — the trio hired by Agarwal to kill tea-stall owner Satyanarayan Thakur on March 30, 2005 — received an additional sentence of 10 years in jail along with a fine of Rs 10,000.

Gopal received a third sentence of seven years in jail for illegal possession of guns.

Thakur’s would-be killers had fired two bullets at his nephew Pramod Sharma after mistaking him for their target. Pramod escaped with a thigh injury. Agarwal’s name cropped up in the case after Gopal was arrested in Hyderabad on May 24 that year.

Khandelwal, a business associate, was included in the chargesheet later.

Before the murder attempt, Agarwal had invited Thakur to Binani Dharamshala in Burrabazar on February 27, 2005, and offered him Rs 4 lakh to shift his tea stall that was blocking the entrance of a building he was to construct.


I had reported yesterday the sentencing of Prabhu Shankar Agarwala.
This mas was a millionaire, many times over.
His business interest spanned the globe.
Haldiram had become a household name for its delicacies.
At least 22 generations could earn on the wealth he had built up even if they did not earn a single rupee.
But such is the greed of man that the lust for wealth and power increases in direct proportion to what they have earned.
But he still had to have that 4 x 6 shop so that he could promote and build another multi-story building in Burrabazar. For that if he had to commit murder, so be it.
How does it help if I get the whole world but do not have peace of mind?
We do not recall the previous life nor know not where we shall be in the next life.
However, if we can make peace with ourselves and our Creator in this one, we shall have achieved our purpose in life.

This is where our Gurus and philosophical thinkers guide us in having a balanced life.
I pity Mr Agarwal and his associates in crime.
May God give him, even now, the inspiration, to change his life.