Muhammad Nisham allegedly pinned victim to wall with his Hummer and beat him with iron rod

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Indian police have charged a millionaire businessman with murder after he allegedly rammed an SUV into his security guard for being slow in opening a gate, an official said.



Muhammad Nisham was arrested last month after he allegedly pinned his guard Chandarabose against a wall with his Hummer over a delay in opening the gate of an apartment complex in India’s southern Kerala state.

Fifty-year-old K Chandarabose was left with multiple injuries after the incident and died of cardiac arrest at a hospital in Thrissur city on Monday, after undergoing several operations in the past two weeks.

“He died in the hospital today after remaining on life support for over two weeks,” said R Nishanthini, Thrissur city police commissioner. “We have charged him [Nisham] with murder.”

Nisham, 39, a tobacco tycoon, allegedly chased the guard with his Hummer inside the complex in the attack last month, squeezing him against a wall before beating him with an iron rod.

Doctors attending to Chandarabose said “his heart had not been functioning properly following the impact of the internal injuries”, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

Police had earlier charged the tycoon with attempted murder. The businessman is facing another criminal case for allowing his nine-year-old son to drive a Ferrari in 2013, which caused an outrage after he uploaded a video on the YouTube.

Nisham owns a beedi (a local type of cigarette) factory in Kerala and reportedly also owns hotel and jewellery businesses in the Middle East. Local media reported that he has a penchant for luxury cars, with a fleet that includes a Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin and Jaguar.