NEW DELHI -- Indian media say a millionaire has been sentenced to life in prison for killing his security guard last year by mowing him down with his luxury SUV in a rage.

The court in the southern state of Kerala issued the sentence on Thursday, after convicting Mohammed Nisham of murder on Wednesday, according to Indian broadcaster NDTV and other news agencies.

Police say Nisham slammed his Hummer into the guard and hit him with an iron rod after pinning him to a wall while accusing him of being too slow in opening the gates one night when the businessman was returning to his housing compound.

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The 50-year-old guard, K. Chandrabose, died in a hospital.

India's economic boom has created a class of super-rich, whose excesses are frequently in the news.

Nisham has a thriving tobacco and real estate business in Kerala. He has faced police charges several times, including one for allowing his 9-year-old son drive a Ferrari on a public road in 2013. He was granted bail on some cases, and ordered to pay fines for others.

Nisham has been in custody near his home town of Thrissur since his February arrest after the guard's death.

The security guard's wife had hoped the court would deliver the death penalty as punishment. "Only then will our family be given justice," his wife, Jamanthi, told Press Trust of India news agency after Nisham's conviction on Wednesday.