P. S. Agarwal, owner of the chain of stores, Haldiram selling Indian confectionery has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a fast track court in Kolkata for having hired four men to kill one Pramod Sharma. Sharma had set up a tea stall outside two buildings owned by Agarwal in central Kolkata. Agarwal wanted to convert the buildings into shopping malls with food outlets and managed to pay off everyone in these buildings to move away but Sharma refused. To remove him Agarwal filed a case in civil court but like all cases it has been stuck there for years. Unable to buy him off or get relief from the court Agarwal sent his goons to shoot Sharma. Sharma managed to escape and mounted a campaign to bring Agarwal to justice in which he has been successful. What is not clear is whether the tea stall was a registered shop and therefore legal. What is for certain is that he would not have been paying any sort of tax. This case typifies the mess of Indian society. 1. By pleading poverty any person can occupy any land and cannot be touched because politicians will protect him. 2. Had the civil court given its judgement things would probably not have gone so far. Had Agarwal lost he would just have had to pay much more to settle. Thus our criminal justice system is not only full of criminals it forces law abiding citizens to become criminals. 3. Agarwal picked a bunch of idiots to shoot Sharma. Had they killed him it would have been easy to bribe the police and the widow and he would have saved himself a heap of trouble. So the lesson is that if you want a hit spend more and get professionals. Better still conduct an IQ test before recruiting them. The fellow in the BMW case got just two years for killing seven but Agarwal gets ten years for shooting a fellow in the leg. Incredible India.