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HC upholds life term for tobacco tycoon who killed guard in Kerala
In 2021, the high court had constituted a medical team to examine Nisham’s mental health after he complained of uneasiness. Nisham has been in jail for last six years.
A division bench of Kerala high court on Friday upheld the life imprisonment sentence awarded to tobacco magnate Mohammad Nisham for killing a security guard of an apartment in a fit of rage by hitting the latter with his SUV in Thrissur on January 28, 2015.
A division bench of justices Vinod K Chandran and C Jayachandran rejected his plea saying there is no need to interfere with the trial court’s verdict at this juncture. The court also rejected the prosecution’s plea to upgrade his life sentence to capital punishment considering the gravity of crime. “All appeals stand dismissed. We do not feel any need to review the trial court verdict now,” the court held. In 2021, the high court had constituted a medical team to examine Nisham’s mental health after he complained of uneasiness. Nisham has been in jail for last six years.
Later, the board informed the court that he did not suffer from any mental ailments. The slain security guard Chandra Bose’s wife Jamanti said she was satisfied that the court turned down his frequent appeals.
In 2016, Nisham was awarded the punishment by Thrissur district additional sessions court and slapped a ₹70 lakh fine, out of which ₹50 lakh would be given to Bose’s widow.
The incident took place when the guard had delayed a bit to open the gate of the apartment enraging the accused who got involved in an argument with the former and assaulted him. When Bose tried to escape, the accused chased him in his SUV — a Hummer — and crushed him against the wall. The critically injured Bose was rushed to a hospital by residents but succumbed to his injuries after three weeks.
As the case attracted nationwide attention, the Supreme Court at that time directed the trail court to complete the hearing in a year and deliver the verdict. In the meantime Nisham moved the high court and Supreme Court several times with different petitions to delay the trial.
After the gruesome incident, many complaints surfaced against Nisham. In 2013, police had booked him after he reportedly allowed his minor son to drive his Ferrari in their residential complex. In another incident, Nisham allegedly locked a woman sub-inspector — who attempted to book him for drunk driving — inside his Rolls Royce car for over two hours. However Nisham emerged unscathed from several cases. In 2016, the government had suspended the then Thrissur police commissioner Jacob Job for allegedly trying to weaken some cases against him.Nishum was shifted to Kannur central jail three years ago after complaints emerged that he was getting special treatment in Thrissur jail.
After Bose’s murder, police had seized all his vehicles, including a Bentley, Aston Martin and Ferrari, and confiscated a licensed gun from his house. Besides proprietor of the Tamil Nadu-based King Beedi company, he exports tobacco and owns a chain of businesses in the Middle East and his assets at the time of his arrest were ₹5000 crore.
