All the accused were convicted for conspiracy, illegal possession of arms, and an attempt to murder Pramod Sharma, the tea stall owner.

Tapan Sen, Additional Sessions Judge, in his verdict, held Agarwal guilty of criminal conspiracy and attempt to murder. The court will deliver the punishment orders on January 29. A total of 41 witnesses deposed before the court.

Agarwal, who was present in the courtroom when the judgment was delivered, was taken into police custody and later sent to Alipore Central Jail. After hearing the judgment, he stood silent for a few minutes before sitting down on a chair, appearing almost shattered, said the public prosecutor.

According to the government pleader, Agarwal had hired a contract killer, Gopal Tiwari, to get rid of Pramod Sharma who had refused to remove his tea stall that was supposedly blocking the entrance of Agarwal’s shop.

According to a senior police official, Agarwal had even offered Sharma Rs 4 lakh. Sharma refused and stuck to his ground.

On March 30, 2005, Tiwari, along with Manoj, Arun Khandelwal and Rajiv Sonkar arrived at the front of the building. One of them fired a bullet at Satyanarayan, a relative of Sharma. But he escaped unhurt. The bullet hit Sharma’s left thigh. Tiwari and his associates fled in a car.

A case was filed at Burrabazzar police station, said Damayanti Sen, Deputy Commissioner of the Detective Department, Kolkata. Tiwari was arrested on May 22, 2005 from Hyderabad. Agarwal was arrested from the Delhi airport on June 7, 2005 on his return from the UK, where he had gone to open a branch of the Haldiram chain.