Panchkula’s Sanjay Arora: From a trader of milk products to established businessman

The second child among seven siblings, Sanjay Arora had five brothers and two sisters. He had dropped out of the Chartered Accountancy course and joined his family business. The family, which originally hailed from Fazilka district in Punjab, had lived at several places before settling down in Chandigarh and Panchkula in 1995.

A 53-year-old Mahinder Arora aka Bittu, the eldest brother of Sanjay’s seven siblings, said, “Inherently, we are traders in milk products. Besides our native place, Fazilka, we also tried to establish our business in Saharanpur, Dehradun, and Shimla. But our luck shone in Chandigarh. We settled at Kajheri village in Chandigarh in 1995. Two of my younger brothers still reside in Kajheri village. In 2001, my brothers, Sanjay Arora and Lucky moved to Sector 9 in Panchkula from Kajheri. Sanjay exponentially grew here. His dairy, Shri Krishna Dairy, and Sweets emerged as a brand and he made influential contacts. He invested in properties, both joint and independent.” Mahinder Arora had separated from his brothers and lives in Sector 22. He owns one Amrit Dairy in Sector 22.

A shopkeeper at the Sector 9 market, Pardeep Kumar said, “Around two years back, Sanjay Arora had decided to take rest from his family business of milk products and started focusing on investments in different properties. About a year back, Sanjay purchased a plot and constructed a new showroom at the cost of around Rs 5.50 crore, near his five marla Shri Krishna Dairy and Sweets shop in Sector 9. However, the showroom had been lying vacant because he did not find a suitable tenant who would pay a huge rent of around Rs 2.50 lakh that Sanjay was demanding.”

Sanjay’s younger brother, Lucky said, “Sanjay really loved his family. He was like a Godfather to us. He had solely built the assets that are owned by the family today. We cannot think that he would harm his family. We have a joint loan of around Rs 9-10 crore from different banks. Everything related to the loans and properties were mainly handled by Sanjay.” On Wednesday morning, Sanjay had handed over Rs 1 lakh to Lucky at his house in Sector 9, Panchkula.