NANAVATI CASE

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In Hot Blood - The Nanavati Case That Shook India by Bachi Karkaria; Published by Juggernaut; Pages 464; Price: Rs 699/-

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 The author of the book under review Bachi Karkaria is the biographer of  M.S.Oberoi and has acquired name and fame for her satirical column “Erratica.” in the Times of India, of which she is Assistant Editor.

Three bullets in less than three minutes  spelled the death of Prem Ahuja at the hands of Naval Commander Kawas Nanavati. A handsome Naval officer commits a crime — a  murder — after his wife  Sylvia confesses to infidelity. He signs for a service revolver from the naval armoury, drives to the lover’s house, rings the bell and is let in. He then finds the man and shoots him dead. He then coolly walks into a police station and gives himself up. And this murderer has the whole country rooting for him. The then Governor Vijaylakshmi Pandit grants him a pardon; the media aggressively fights his case outside the court. A criminal becomes a hero of the nation; a murderer escapes the gallows and with honour, too.

Nanavati is the heroic, honourable navy officer, with a stellar career; Ahuja, the decadent, sleazy businessman playboy; Sylvia, the deceived and betrayed woman.  Their story hung on those medals glinting on the dazzling whites. Nanavati was projected as the upright, patriotic naval officer out for months defending the country’s waters. Ahuja was cast as nothing but a filthy rich playboy, and his seducing a Sylvia left lonely and vulnerable while her husband performed his duty to the nation was easily shown as doubly immoral.

The murder  happened on April 27 1959  but the trial which began the following September held the nation in thrall for five years.

It also spelled the death of the jury system in India.

The case resulted in a collision between  the  judiciary and the executive  and led to a major rehaul of the criminal justice system. It had social, legal and political impact. Inevitably it spawned a number of Bollywood movies including the latest “Rustom” which fetched the hero Akshay Kumar the Best Actor Award.

 Karkaria tells the full tale for the first time--In this "part thriller, part courtroom drama and legal history and part social portrait of post-Independence Bombay". She  provides its first comprehensive account.

According to her   the number three has a close affinity with the case beyond the three main protagonists and the three shots. It was also not "the class, the cast and the context which were such a triple whammy that they have knocked out everything else" but "three major narratives that deserve greater engagement".What accounts for this extraordinary turn of events? Three factors were crucial.

One: Nanavati was a favourite of the then Defence Minister, V.K. Krishna Menon with whom he had served in the High Commission in London. Menon called Rajni Patel and asked him to take the case

Two: Karkaria suggests that it was a war of the elites. The Parsis were the old elite. Ahuja, a self-made Sindhi businessman represented a new entrepreneurial class which the old elite regarded as vulgar and undeserving of respect.

And three: the defence managed to turn the case into a matter of morality. Not only was Ahuja portrayed as a sexual predator but it was suggested that when the upright Commander confronted him and asked if his motives were honourable, Ahuja laughed and said, “I don’t have to marry every woman I sleep with.”

 This case  proved that justice could be subverted. The duel  between two pillars of the state and unique intervention of the head of government; the media, with regards to its coverage; and the triangle itself are the unique  features of the case.

 Karkaria presents the corkscrew like turn of events  from the Sessions Court to the Supreme Court, what became of the characters of the sordid drama .  Note the  variety of happenings -- a Parsi accused, who obtained  the murder weapon from a Muslim sailor and killed a Sindhi businessman, reported what he had done to a Jewish naval provost marshal, who sent him to a Christian police officer !.

Most fascinating is the recounting of the trial which encompasses  the bench and bar. Important names that crowd  in the  book include Lord Mountbatten, Ram Jethmalani, Jawaharlal Nehru, Karl Khandalavala and Defence Minister V.K. Krishna Menon and many others. The Media war represented by "The Blitz" of R.K. Karanjia, which was  unapologetic pro-Nanavati . The Blitz’s campaign was the forerunner of what today is called, trial by the media. Blitz also used the oldest tricks in the book — headlines and visuals — to captivate and sway readers.

Commander Kawas Nanavati appears in court, resplendent in his white uniform and glittering medals.

Karkaria paints the picture of Bombay in the 1950s and 1960s and succeeds in giving us a visual setting of the city in that decade. There are also interesting vignettes of the well-connected Nanavati family, of  wife Sylvia — a dutiful daughter-in-law by all accounts and the three children. There’s a description of Prem Ahuja’s sister, a pleasant person.

The country’s best lawyers appeared in the case at various stages: Rajni Patel, Ram Jethmalani ,Karl Khandalavala, Nani Palkhivala, YY Chandrachud, H.M. Seervai and SR Vakil.

 The Nanavati case also marked the end of the jury system after the jury returned with a verdict of ‘Not Guilty’ at the end of the trial, which was termed ‘perverse’ by the Legal Eagles  and soon thereafter rang the death knell of the jury system. The jury’s decision was overturned by the judge but by then Nanavati had won full public support. There were frenzied demonstrations in his favour outside the courtroom and incendiary editorials calling for his release.Blitz, then India’s largest-selling weekly, ran a campaign to have Nanavati declared innocent and the Commander became such a cult . Blitz published  a photograph of Nanavati’s son Feroze under the caption ‘Mr. Governor, Give Me Back My Father’

Nanavati was treated royally in that while the case was in progress he did not go to  a real prison or even  police lock-up. He lived in relative comfort, in a naval detention centre. He kept his uniform on and was saluted by lower ranks. When the Courts tried to send him to jail, the Governor of Maharashtra intervened officially, on Nanavati’s behalf, to keep him out of prison.

 Nanavati got away with the murder. He was reconciled with Sylvia  and by 1964 had got himself a job with the Tatas, and a visa to Canada where the family began a new life.

 Karkaria has written an outstanding story which as Fali Nariman rightly declared as “Unputdownable” .

 P.P.Ramachandran

02 / 07 / 2017