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Hummer Victim Chandrabose’s Wife Reminisces About Their Life, Scared of What’s Ahead

Hummer victim Chandrabose’s wife reminisces about their life, scared of what’s ahead

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By now, Jamanthi has become used to the media camping outside her house. Her mother-in-law and children have also learned to cope with the media glare. The presence of strangers in their house no longer rattles them. This four-roomed unplastered house in Vilakkumkal, 18km away from Thrissur city, Kerala, has been the focus of television cameras ever since that fateful day of January 28, 2015.

Jamanthi is the wife of Kattungal Chandrabose, the security guard who was assaulted by businessman Mohammed Nisham outside a residential complex. Pinned to a wall by the Hummer Nisham was driving, his injuries worsened after he was beat with an iron rod repeatedly.

Despite enduring five major surgeries, Chandrabose succumbed to his injuries on February 17. From the time of the assault this house has seen a steady stream of politicians, police officials and journalists.

Things are calmer now and the family is trying to return to normalcy, though the legal battle ahead of them is going to be arduous.

“Bose-ettan was a loving husband,” Jamanthi tells The News Minute.

Hummer victim Chandrabose’s wife reminisces about
their life, scared of what’s ahead
(Photo: YouTube)

“Ours was an arranged marriage. He used to speak so loudly, that people could easily locate him just because of his voice,” she says, narrating that Chandrabose had been a drama artist and a singer before their wedding.

Jamanthi and Chandrabose both hailed from the same village, Kanjani in Thrissur. While she was working as a daily wage labourer in a diamond polishing industry in the city, her husband was a manual labourer.

“Only after marriage, he started working as a manual labourer. Then he started tapping toddy,” Jamanthi says.

He contracted back problems after years of physical labour and he later worked as a waiter in a hotel for six years. With his meager savings and a loan he bought an autorickshaw.

“But that did not work out. We incurred losses and eventually had to sell the vehicle,” she says.

It is after this that he took up the job of a security guard. “Come August, it would have been three years of Bose-ettan working as a security guard.”

Jamanthi soon left her job at the diamond polishing industry. She then started working as a help in a nearby house where an old couple lived. “When their daughter gave birth to a baby in Dubai they asked me if I could go there to help and I agreed. For the next one and half years I was there and it was my mother-in-law who took care of my husband and children.”

With the money she earned abroad, along with some additional financial aid, the couple bought 2,178 square foot of land on which they built the house that stands today.

“It was six years back that we constructed this house but we had enough money to only build one room and a kitchen. The four of us stayed in this one room. After few years we made a two-roomed hut attached to this room,” Jamanthi says.

Every rupee earned was saved by the family and it was only a week before the day of Chandrabose’s death that the two-roomed hut was converted into a proper house. Only the electrical work, tiling, and plastering remained.

“The night Bose-ettan left home on 28th he had told us that we will begin the electrical work soon,” she says.

The family has more or less come to terms with the loss, all except their 14-year-old son. Amal Dev, his mother says, is fine during the day, “but cries inconsolably through the night.”

“Bose-ettan and Amal used to be very close,” Jamanthi says. “They both used to pull each other’s leg, fight and then talk for long hours into the night. He was lazy and would try to skip school and the father would be angry and upset at that. Even on 28th he had not attended school and the two had fought over that.”

However, Jamanthi says that unlike Amal, their daughter Revati, a student of the NIT Calicut, controls her emotions.

“She has always been very composed; she does not show her feelings outside. She is acting very brave now but I don’t know how she is feeling inside,” she says.

The family has a liability of Rs 5 lakh. Shobha Developers for whom Chandrabose was working has assured that they will pay his last drawn salary to the family for the next five years. They have also assured to meet all the educational expenses of the children.

When city police commissioner Nishanthini came to their home, Jamanthi cried to her, begging for justice.

“She promised me in front of the lamp that she would ensure justice. I hope she can,” she says.

When asked if the reports of Mohammed Nisham trying to influence the case was worrying her, she replied in the affirmative.

“I’m worried he will try influence the case. He has money. But I’m more worried about the safety of many relatives, neighbours and friends who are helping us. Have their lives been put in danger?” she says.

“My constant fear is that something bad will happen to them. They were just fighting for us.”

(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)

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