Haldiram owner convicted for conspiring to murder

A city sessions court convicted Prabhu Shankar Agarwal, the owner of Haldiram confectionary chain, and five others for conspiring to murder a tea stall owner in Kolkata in 2005.

A fast-track court will announce the sentence for Agarwal and four others accused on Friday.

Agarwal, who was present in the court, was taken into police custody and lodged in Alipore Central jail in Kolkata.

This is the first instance in Kolkata that somebody giving supari has been caught and convicted.

They are accused of hiring killers to kill Satyanarayan Thakur, owner of the shop in the Burrabazar area, a busy business district of Kolkata.

But the killers led by criminal and extortionist Gopal Tiwary shot Pramod Sharma, the 18-year old nephew of Thankur. Tiwary, too, has been taken into custody on Wednesday.

Thakur had refused to vacate his tea-shop which his grandfather had set up more than 50 years ago.

Agarwal wanted to remove Thankur's shop that blocked the entrance to his restaurant. But the killers shot Sharma at 4 am just when he opened his uncle's shop on 30 March 2005.

But they missed their mark, and Sharma with a bullet lodged in his leg was rushed to a hospital.

Sharma still runs the shop with his uncle.