Bail plea of Haldiram owner rejected by HC

Kolkata, 10 Mar: The Calcutta High Court today 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 29 January, 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.


(PTI)