Eminent tea planter Hemendra Prasad Barooah died this evening in Bangkok following a cardiac arrest, company sources said.
He was 87 and is survived by two daughters. His wife and son had predeceased him.
He was ailing for some time and had gone to Bangkok on July 26 for treatment and died this evening at his hotel room.
Owner of Barooah and Associates (B&A), he belonged to Assam's leading family of indigenous tea planters. He owned several tea gardens in upper Assam area and was based in Kolkata.
During the height of ULFA's insurgency, Barooah was one of the leading tea planters who stood up to them and refused to bow to their extortion demands.
For the last few years, he divided his time between his ancestral home at Jorhat, his own house in Guwahati and Kolkata.
He was a well-known philanthropist and an avid collector of contemporary Indian art.
