Kerala HC dismisses beedi tycoon's appeal in murder case

The Kerala High Court on Friday dismissed an appeal filed by beedi baron Mohammed Nisham challenging a trial court order sentencing him for life for killing a security guard in a fit of rage by ramming his luxury vehicle in Thrissur district seven years ago.

A Division Bench of the High Court comprising Justices K Vinod Chandran and C Jayachandran upheld the trial court order sentencing Nisham for life.

The high court also dismissed a government plea seeking maximum penalty of death sentence to Nisham and another plea of the owner of the vehicle against the trial court order refusing to release the vehicle involved in the incident.

In its 2016 order, the the Additional District Court, Thrissur had also awarded 24 years in jail for Nisham and in addition and slapped a fine of Rs 80.30 lakh on him. He is currently serving his jail term.

”We find absolutely no reason to, in any manner, interfere with the conviction as found in the judgment impugned. We uphold the conviction of the accused, as passed by the trial court and as a consequence dismiss the appeal of the accused,” the high court said in the order.

Nisham had in a fit of rage assaulted Chandrabose (51) and later rammed his luxury vehicle against him in the early hours of 29 January, 2015. He was irked over the delay in the guard opening the main gates of a posh residential complex ‘Shobha city’ in Thrissur.

The severely injured guard, treated in a hospital with ventilator support, died on 16 February. The case had evoked widespread protests across the state.

In its judgement, the high court referred to the incident that occurred in Thrissur, saying the ‘Cultural Capital’ of Kerala woke up, to the news of the ”thoroughly uncultured act, adding chill to the otherwise cold January morning.” It said the ”frenzied attack” by the accused on Chandrabose with a powerful vehicle; resulted in the victim sustaining very grievous injuries to which he succumbed 18 days later, during which period he was continuously in the Intensive Care Unit of a hospital.

”At the crime scene itself, a threat was leveled to shoot the deceased, then the deliberate act of moving the car and turning it on the deceased callously and with malicious intent. Yet again there was no attempt to save the injured or take him to the hospital and he was taken into the parking lot of the complex, where the accused resided,” it said. The high court said inside the confines of the parking area, again a gruesome act was committed by the accused. Dismissing the appeal of the state seeking the sentence to be enhanced to one of capital punishment, the high court said the sentence imposed by the trial court, ”as confirmed by us, is imprisonment for life, which is for the rest of the life of the convict” and if the State stays its hands and restricts itself and the power of remission is not invoked, the convict spends his life in prison.

”We hence find, no reason to interfere with the sentence imposed by the trial court and agree with the trial court that it is not one of the rarest of the rare cases,” the high court said.