NEW DELHI // An Indian court yesterday sentenced a millionaire businessman to life in jail for murder after he drove his car into a security guard who was slow to open a gate, a prosecutor said.
Mohammed Nisham, 39, was convicted on Wednesday for pinning the guard against a wall with his Hummer SUV over a delay in opening the gate of his apartment complex in Kerala.
“The court awarded life sentence for the murder and 24 years in jail for other offences,” the public prosecutor involved in the case, C P Udayabhanu, said.
“He is a repeat offender and we are satisfied with the judgment,” Mr Bhanu said.
Nisham was also fined eight million rupees (about Dh432,000), half of which he must donate to the victim’s family.
Chandarabose, the 50-year-old guard, was left with multiple injuries by the assault last January and died after a cardiac arrest in hospital.
Prosecutors told the court that Nisham pursued the guard into the complex with his vehicle and squeezed him against a wall before getting out and beating him with an iron rod.
It is not the first time Nisham has made headlines.
He faces a separate criminal case for allowing his nine-year-old son to drive a Ferrari in 2013, which caused outrage after he uploaded a video onto YouTube.
Nisham made his fortune from beedis, the popular hand-rolled Indian cigarette, and also owns hotel and jewellery businesses in the Middle East.
* Agence France-Presse
