An ambitious and hardworking 50-year-old Indian-origin man’s dream of setting up a hospitality chain in the US was snuffed out this week in a manner as ghastly as it was tragic. Dallas motel manager Chandra Mouli Nagamallaiah, whose roots are in Andhra Pradesh’s Dharmavaram, was beheaded on Sept 10 in front of his wife and son, allegedly by a co-worker who took umbrage at his boss getting another person to translate instructions. The suspect, 37-year-old Cuban co-worker Yordanis Cobos-Martinez, has been arrested and charged with capital murder, according to the Dallas police department.
Cobos-Martinez reportedly became enraged when Mouli asked another person to relay his instructions to Coboz over using a broken washing machine instead of addressing him directly. The workplace spat that ended Mouli’s life occurred just as he was planning a trip to India in Oct to meet his mother and sibling.
Mouli spent much of his life in Bengaluru, studying, working and trying his hand at several businesses in the city before moving to the US. He had been based in Dallas for the past five years, running the motel owned by an NRI from Gujarat. Suresh Kumar, a former neighbour at Bengaluru’s RT Nagar, said Chandra Mouli never made a secret of his desire to go to the US. One morning in 2018, Mouli declared he was flying to US. From 2018 to 2021, he was in San Antonio before moving to Dallas. He would show his house and motel during regular video calls. Sometimes, Nisha (Mouli’s wife) would speak to my wife and invite us to US,” Suresh Kumar, a former neighbour told TOI.“Mouli dreamt of settling in Texas. I was shocked when someone knocked on my door at 7pm on Thursday to narrate what happened,” he told TOI.Texas had been on Mouli’s radar because his elder sister and brother-in-law were already running a hospitality business there. Sailas Nulaka, a classmate from primary school and a friend of three decades, said it was beyond belief that someone as gentle as Mouli, aka Molly, would be killed in such a brutal manner. “He was the humblest friend I have known,” he said.Abilash Reddy, another childhood friend from Thippasandra and a former corporator, described Mouli’s family as “highly respectable” and loved. “About two years ago, they renovated their house and turned it into a PG. They have always been kind and generous, which is why it is so shocking that something of this magnitude has happened to them.”A fundraiser on GoFundMe.com for Mouli’s funeral and to support his 18-year-old son Gaurav’s education – the teenager is set to enrol for an undergraduate course in hospitality management – mopped up over $85,000 in just over 48 hours. Mouli’s mother and brother are expected in Dallas on Saturday for the funeral.
