Chandrabose (48), a security guard into whom controversial Kerala businessman Muhammad Nisham (38), nicknamed Ferrari Dad, had rammed his Hummer SUV on January 29, died on Monday afternoon in a private hospital near Thrissur, where he battled for his life for 19 days, amidst allegations that behind-the-scene bids were on to save the businessman.
The security guard of the posh Sobha City villa complex at Puzhakkal near Thrissur had undergone six surgeries for fractures and organ ruptures suffered in the attack by Nisham who had beaten him up with a wooden rod apart from ramming his heavy Hummer into him. Nisham, presently under judicial custody, would now be charged with murder.
Chandrabose was admitted to the private Amala Hospital near Puzhakkal in an extremely critical condition at about 3.30 am on January 29 and he was put on ventilator for a week. He was shifted to the ICU after his condition improved but he had to be put back on ventilator a week ago following diagnosis of ruptures in the stomach.
Nisham, managing director of Thirunalveli-based Kings Beedi Company and a supplier of tobacco to several major firms had almost in maniac rage attacked the security guard at the vehicle gates of Sobha City, where he was a resident, on January 29 for being late by some seconds to open the gate when he reached there in his Hummer at about 2.15 AM.
To escape the attack, the security guard ran out and climbed on to a nearby fountain but Nisham rammed him with his Hummer, crushing him against the fountain’s stone wall. Then he took Chandrabose to a parking lot where he beat him up again with a wooden rod. When the police reached the spot, they found Chandrabose under the Hummer in an extremely critical condition.
The security guard, the only bread-earner of his family of four, had suffered serious injuries like fractures in the ribs, hip bone and backbone and ruptures in several internal organs, in Nisham’s attacks. Cremation would take place at his residence in Kandassankadavu in Thrissur district on Tuesday.
Nisham is seen as a habitual offender as he had figured in at least ten criminal cases. He came to be known as “Ferrari Dad” after he was booked for allowing his seven-year-old son to drive a Ferrari in April, 2013. Within 48 hours of the attack on the security guard, a film actor and four young women were arrested for possessing and using cocaine from Nisham’s flat in Kochi.
Meanwhile, allegations have come up to the effect that the authorities are trying to protect Nisham. It is pointed out that the police had “failed” to record the statement of Chandrabose when his condition had improved. Though Nisham had been booked in several cases, he had never faced serious punishment.
“There is no statement of the victim. There are no CCTV recordings available of the incident at Sobha City. There are only the statements of two security guards and we can’t say how strong these will be during the course of the case. And now we are hearing about behind-the-scene bids to save Nisham,” said a Thrissur-based lawyer.
At the same time, colleagues of Chandrabose complained that the Government had committed an act of betrayal by not fulfilling its promise to bear the entire expenses of the treatment. It is said that the Government had given only Rs25,000 while the treatment expenses had come to nearly Rs7 lakh.
The police had taken Nisham to Bangalore as part of the investigation concerning the seizure of cocaine and arrest of five persons in connection with it from his Kochi flat. It is said that the businessman and the young woman assistant film director, Blessy Sylvester, second accused in the Kochi cocaine case, were acquaintances.