Tobacco and real estate baron Mohammed Nisham has been sentenced to life imprisonment and fined Rs 71 lakh compensation for the murder of a security guard.
On Thursday, a court in Kerala found him guilty of murdering a security guard he said was too slow with his high-end SUV in his housing society in January 2015.
Nisham slammed his Hummer into the guard, 50-year-old K. Chandrabose, and hit him with an iron rod after pinning him against a wall as the gates were slow to open when he returned home late one night, police said.
Chandrabose fought for his life in the hospital for about two weeks, but eventually succumbed to his injuries.
Thrissur District Additional Sessions Court Judge KP Sudheer convicted Nisham for murdering Chandrabose but reserved the quantum of sentence for Thursday.
The trial has also seen several twists and turns as the Chandrabose's colleagues, who were witnesses to the crime, turned hostile due to alleged pressure from Nisham.
Nisham had earlier courted controversy for his flamboyant lifestyle -- he once tipped a room boy with Rs 10,000. He also let his (then) nine-year old son drive a Ferrari on a public road in 2013.
Nisham is the son of beedi businessman Adakkaparambil Abdul Khadar. He had founded King Beedi Company at Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu. He is now the managing director of King Beedi Company. Police records showed that he owned 18 high-end cars worth an estimated $4 million, including a Bentley and a Lamborghini.
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