From Business Baron to Gardener

Sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment for hiring killers to bump off a tea-stall owner, the owner of Haldiram now earns Rs 21 a day tending to flower pots inside prison.

The empire of Prabhu Shankar Agarwal, owner of the Haldiram brand, is estimated at Rs 500 crore. So chances are that he will take some time to get used to his present status as a ‘semi-skilled’ worker in Kolkata’s Alipore Central Jail, tending to flower pots inside prison. Sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment for hiring killers to bump off a tea-stall owner, Agarwal  now earns Rs 21 a day. And he will have to put in at least ten hours of gardening daily. But the state government will hike prisoners’ salaries soon. So a semi-skilled worker like Agarwal will get Rs 45 a day, about a third of what a waiter at one of the many Haldiram’s restaurants makes in a day.

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