Radhe Shyam Agarwal

Radhe was born in a Marwari family on 18 February 1946 in Kolkata, India. Radhe completed his college education from St. Xavier's College, Kolkata. He got his LLB from Calcutta University; M.Com from Calcutta University. Radhe is a Chartered Accountant from Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and Company Secretary from Institute of Company Secretaries of India. In 1970 Radhe joined Aditya Birla Group as vice president.[4]

In 1974 Radhe along with his school friend Radhe Shyam Goenka started a cosmetics company Emami. The company was started with a capital of $2600 borrowed from Radhe Shayam Goenka's father.[5] Emami is now a multiple business global group of companies with a revenue of above $1.3 billion.[6]

Radhe also serve as Joint Chairman and Director of Emami group of companies, Executive Director of Emami, Director of Zandu Realty.[7] He had also served as Director of West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation and Trustee of Merchant Chamber of Commerce and Industries.[8]

Radhe is married to Usha Bansal and have two sons, Aditya Agarwal and Harsh Agarwal, and one daughter, Priti Agarwal Sureka.[9] The entire family is part of the Emami group and lives on tony Southern Avenue in Kolkata, India. Priti Agarwal is married to Raj Sureka.[10][11]

In the early morning of 9 December 2011, an AMRI Hospital in south Kolkata's Dhakuria district erupted in fire, leading to the deaths of 92 people — mostly critically ill patients, many of them suffocating in their sleep.[12] The following day, the license for the hospital was cancelled, and the Chief Minister of West Bengal ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident.[13] Allegedly, the fire was triggered by flammable chemicals that were stored at the site.[13][14] Rescue efforts were hampered by the narrowness and congestion of the road leading to the hospital,[13] and the allegations that all of the windows and doors were locked[13] and that the fire alarms and sprinklers installed at the hospital did not work during the fire.[14]

Seven members of the hospital's board were arrested the same day, and were remanded to police custody until 20 December by the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Alipore.[13] Among the seven arrested were Agarwal and Goenka, founders of Emami and directors of the hospital chain, who were charged with negligently causing the deaths.[13] Ultimately a total of 16 people stood accused in the courts in July 2016, including the board members and several directors of the hospital.[12] Amongst the charges were culpable homicide not amounting to murder under section 304 of the Indian Penal Code, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years' imprisonment in cases where the criminal actions are undertaken knowingly but without the intention to cause death.[12] Additional charges were laid under Section 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) and Section 38 (effect caused partly by act and partly by omission).[12]

The fire was recorded as the largest hospital tragedy in India at the time.[14]

• Radhe Shyam Agarwal