The News Minute | Siddharth Mohan Nair & Dhanya Rajendran

On January 28th evening, 50-year-old Chandrabose left his house, a little upset with his school- going son Amal for skipping classes that day.

“Come back Acha (dad), I will never bunk classes. I will go to school properly, you will not have to scold me again,” wails Amal as he waits with others for his father’s dead body to be brought home.

Chandra Bose, a security guard at Shobha villas in Thrissur was the unfortunate victim of a Hummer car attack in a fit of rage by beedi business tycoon Nissam Muhemmed. 

His wife, son, daughter and mother sat huddled in the porch of the house, crying, inconsolable. “I made fish curry for you, and you never came back to eat it. Why did you leave?” the distraught wife repeatedly asked, to no one in particular.

Shattered and angry at his father’s death, the young boy unable to process the emotions within him, was also muttering to himself that he would kill the man responsible. The grandmother then chided him, “Don’t talk like that. Who will look after your mother and sister?”

Chandra Bose breathed his last at a private hospital in Thrissur on Monday. His only fault was that he was two minutes late in opening the apartment gate at around 2.30 in the morning.

Enraged that Chandra Bose and three other guards had not opened the apartment gate on time, Nissam rammed his Hummer into the gate. What followed was a vicious attack as described by one of the other guards to the police.

Most family members and friends gathered at Chandra Bose’s house for his funeral had heard the gruesome details of the incident from local police officers. They are hoping that a statement given by the main witness in the case, another security guard who worked with Chandra Bose will become clinching evidence.

The News Minute has accessed parts of the statement by the security guard. (Name withheld).

The guard has described the incident that happened around 3.00 am in vivid detail to the police. He says Nissam reached the apartment gate and was angry when the gate was not opened immediately. When he yelled questioning the delay, one of the guards retorted that it was late in the night and so they needed to be careful while letting someone in. This angered Nissam, who got out of the car and got into an argument. 

There were four of us. We rushed into the cabin when he became aggressive. He took a stick used by security guards that was lying around and started smashing the cabin. Then he barged in. Chandra Bose resisted. They had a fight inside cabin. We all tried running out.

-Witness account

The guard has described how terrified they were as Nissam started smashing the cabin.The witness has also explained the fight inside the cabin in vivid detail to the police.

He has said in his statement that later Chandra Bose was hit with the stick multiple times, but he managed to escape.

“Nissam got into the car and started the car. He chased him once through a path inside the apartment block. Chandrabose then went near a water fountain situated inside the complex.”

The statement describes that the water fountain was on a raised platform (one step leading to it).

“The car came fast and rammed into Chandrabose,” the security guard has said.

It was this impact that most likely killed him, as doctors have confirmed that his internal organs were severely injured and bleeding. 

Some media reports in the Kerala media say that a relative of Chandrabose has claimed, his statement was not taken by the police. But family members at the house say he hardly spoke in the two weeks he was on ventilator, and uttered just a line or two.

We could not record Chandra Bose’s statement as he was unconscious throughout. But there are other witnesses in the case. 

-Nishanthini, Thrissur Police Commissioner

“There are quite a few instances. The other security guard’s identity is now known to most. But we are trying to keep the other statements hush, we don’t want them to get into any trouble,” a police officer investigating the case told The News Minute.

Nissam, the owner of Kings Beedi.  has a string of cases against him, and the stories of his clout are legendary in parts of Kerala. “We are not sure whether we can trust the police. We want a CBI probe.”