The Nanavati case

1959. Bombay. 37-year-old Kamas Maneckshaw Nanavati was a Commander in the Indian Navy. He had a beautiful English wife named Sylvia and two children. A rosy picture....from the outside.
Nanavati's long absences for duty led Sylvia to an affair with a playboy called Prem Ahuja who was a family friend as well. She even told her husband about it.

On April 27th afternoon Nanavati dropped Slyvia and the kids at a cinema theatre and went to Ahuja's flat with a loaded pistol. Ahuja came out in a bath towel. Nanavati asked him if he would marry Slyvia. Ahuja replied, 'How can I marry all the women I sleep with?'

Nanavati took out his pistol and fired three shots point blank and killed Ahuja. Then he proceeded to the Provost Marshal of the Western Naval Command and surrendered himself.



The murder became a sensation in the country. A jury heard the trial and declared Nanavati 'not guilty' by 8 to 1. Ram Jethmalani was a young lawyer then. At the request of Ahuja's sister Mamie, he took up the case. It was referred to the High Court. The High court pronounced a life sentence for Nanavati upon which he appealed to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court confirmed the verdict.
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Ram Jethmalani[/caption]

By now mass support was gathering for Nanavati, driven mainly by R. K. Karanjia's Blitz paper. Vijayalakshmi Pandit the Governor of Bombay and Prime Minister Nehru's sister, awarded pardon. Jethmalani was asked to convince Mamie Ahuja of the same.

[caption id="attachment_1288" align="aligncenter" width="224"] Vijayalakshmi Pandit[/caption]

Caste eventually played its hand in this case. Karanjia took this up as a big Parsi cause. Why did Vijayalakshmi Pandit pardon Nanavati? She received a mercy petition the same time from Bhai Pratap, a prominent Sindhi leader who had an export-import business of sports goods. He was convicted of misuse of import license. Bhai Pratap could be pardoned, she reasoned, after Nanavati had been pardoned. This would appease both the Parsi and Sindhi communities. It may be noted that Prem Ahuja was a Sindhi.
The jury consisted of 9 members including 2 Parsis, 2 Christians and 5 Hindus. Reginald William Pierce is the only member who voted against Nanavati.
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Reginald William Pierce[/caption]

After being pardoned by the government, Nanavati left for Canada along with his wife and two children. He died in 2003. Sylvia is still alive. With this case, the jury system was done away with in India. The case's fame owes in large measure to Russi Karanjia and his tabloid Blitz.
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R. K. Karanjia[/caption]

The Nanavati case found echoes in movies like Ye Rastey Hey Pyar Ke (1963), Achanak (1973) and Rustom (2016). Akshay Kumar won National Award for Best Actor in the last said movie. The case was the subject of a 2002 book by Indra Sinha called The Death of Mr. Love and another one in 2017 called In Hot Blood by Bachi Karkaria.



PS: Nanavati is the 'Commander Sabarmati' in Salman Rushdie's Booker Prize-winning 1980 novel Midnight's Children. Excerpts from the book:
'.................With his new knowledge, Saleem plots his first attack against Homi Catrack and Lila Sabarmati to punish them for their illicit affair. He clips out letters from newspaper headlines that, once assembled, spell out “Commander Sabarmati Why Does Your Wife Go to Colaba Causeway on Sunday Morning?” He hides the note in the commander’s clothes.
Commander Sabarmati hires a detective to follow his wife. One Sunday, after receiving the investigator’s report, the commander checks out a revolver, finds Lila and Homi Catrack, and shoots them both. He manages to kill Homi Catrack and severely injure his wife. Afterward, he approaches a traffic cop and tries to turn himself in. The officer flees when he sees the gun, so Commander Sabarmati is left to direct the traffic until a squad of police officers arrives to arrest him. Ismail Ibrahim, the lawyer who once defended Ahmed, agrees to defend Commander Sabarmati, as well. 
The Commander becomes a national hero, and the first jury to hear his case acquits him. The judge, however, overturns the verdict. The special treatment has turned the public against him, and the president refuses to pardon him.........'


(2018)