Jamanthi, wife of Nisham’s victim wants justice – not vengeance.

Today, justice has been served. Or at least, a promise to do so has been made. Beedi king Mohammed Nisham was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for life, and an additional 24 years, for the murder of security guard Chandrabose at Sobha City apartments at Thrissur, Kerala. Nisham, apparently intoxicated, and in a fit of rage, tried to run over Chandrabose, and eventually crushed him against a wall while in his luxury SUV. Nisham, who has multiple business interests from real estate to jewelery, has a fleet of imported cars, and several traffic offences linked to these. Nisham was returning to his apartment late at night, and a delay in opening the entrance barricade reportedly led to the incident. This is not the first time he has had a brush with the authorities, but he has, so far, managed to stay out of the reach of the long arm of the law. Given the seriousness of the latest spot he got himself into, it does not come as a surprise that Nisham was finally netted by the police. Although the trial took many twists enroute, the verdict that was pronounced on January 20th nailed him as guilty. Both sides plan to appeal, with Nisham’s lawyers maintaining that the death of the guard was not premeditated, while the prosecution bent on getting him a death sentence. “Why should he still be alive in a world where my husband isn’t?” laments Chandrabose’s wife Jamanthi.

All this, in court, where evidence finds a place, and emotions do not. A stage where hired lawyers enact their roles, while those who had their destinies reshaped remain in seething pain.

Jamanthi will not settle for anything less than the death sentence for the murderer of her husband. It is not vengeance, she just wants justice. And for the same reason, she does not extend her hatred of the culprit to anybody else in his family. If you set aside all the media circus, the spotlights on the accused and their families, all this attention that stems from a thirst for new news, you’re left with ordinary people. Flesh, blood, emotions and acceptance. Media persons and onlookers started to disperse soon after the verdict was pronounced. A few stragglers who were left behind were witness to some truly poignant scenes outside the court. Abdul Khader, the brother of murder accused Nisham’s father, approached Jamanthi, as she stood outside the courts. The conversation between the two of them was devoid of all the courtroom drama that had just unfurled. They had often met in the course of the trial – a sense of familiarity enforced by undesirable, but unavoidable circumstances. The exhaustion of the trial was evident as Jamanthi tried to talk to him. Yet, it was not a sense of retribution or victory at having had Nisham convicted that she seemed to harbor. “Don’t be upset at us. Try understand it from our point of view… ” is what she told the elderly Khader. Khader could only try to console her with fatherly affection, as they both struggled under the rapidly rising tide of sorrows that left them breathless.

They were no longer opposing participants engaged in a vicious courtroom battle. That was the job of the lawyers. At that point, they were just two individuals, united by the searing pain of a tragedy both of them wished hadn’t happened.

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