Planning To Watch 'Rustom'? Here’s The Real Story Behind It

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The trailer of Akshay Kumar’s Rustom brings to light the real life events of an Indian Naval Officer, Commander Kawas Manekshaw Nanavati. Rustom is largely inspired by his famous 1959 case. This was a story involving an extra-marital affair that resulted in a murder.

This case later went on to become the last case to be heard by a jury.

Here’s the real life story of Cdr KM Nanavati as explained in upcoming AK’s “Rustom” in 20 points:

People Involved:

Main – Cdr KM Nanavati;
Nanavati’s Wife – Sylvia;
Nanavati’s Friend – Prem Ahuja

The Story:

KM Nanavati was an alumnus of National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, Pune, from where he joined the Indian Navy and went on to become a Commander in its ranks (eq to Lt. Col in Army).
He was a Parsi by birth and was settled with his wife, Sylvia and their 2 sons and a daughter in the Bombay of 1959.
Being a Naval Officer, Cdr Nanavati had to be away from his family for long during which his wife, Slyvia started having extra marital affairs with Nanavati’s friend, Prem Ahuja.
As proven by many letters from Sylvia to Prem, she wanted to divorce Nanavati and marry her lover, but Prem didn’t have the same intentions and refused her proposal.
When Cdr Nanavati came back from his long on-ship assignment on April 27, 1959, he enquired about the depression of her wife. Aware of the fact that she had made a mistake, she spilled the beans to Nanavati on 27th April 1959. Nanavati wanted to shoot himself, by Sylvia managed to calm him down.
Nanavati later dropped his family at Metro cinema, and drove up to the Naval base, collected his pistol on a false pretext from the stores along with six cartridges, completed his official duties and proceeded to Prem Ahuja’s office.
Failing to find him there, he moved to his flat to search him and asked him whether he intended to marry Sylvia and accept their children. Prem replied “Will I marry every woman I sleep with?” and Nanavati shot him three times, killing him on the spot.
Nanavati turned himself in front of Provost Marshal of the Western Naval Command confessing to his crime, who advised him to surrender himself to the Deputy Commissioner of Police.
Since Nanavati, a patriotic person serving the country, had no criminal background and he willingly surrendered, the Bombay sessions court pronounced him not guilty under Section 302. Seeing a wronged husband in front of them, the jury also sympathised with the accused and ruled in his favour, 8 to 1.
The case received unprecedented media coverage in such a way that 25p copy newspaper was sold for Rs 2 apiece This was sparked by a tabloid, the Bombay Daily Blitz, championing the cause of Nanavati, after which Nanavati, accused under section 302, was declared not guilty by the session court. It later turned out that Bombay Daily Blitz itself was owned by a fellow Parsi. This was further flamed by the fact that there were no witnesses in the Nanavati case.
The victim’s sister, Mamie Ahuja and the prosecution contested the fact that what Nanavati had done was not because he lost his self-control but the murder was premeditated. With this argument, the then-young lawyer Ram Jethmalani, assisting in the prosecution, appealed to the Bombay High Court.
The case went to the Bombay High Court which agreed with the prosecution’s argument that the murder was premeditated and sentenced him to life imprisonment for culpable homicide amounting to murder. The Supreme Court also upheld the conviction.
This case led to some unrest between the Parsi and the Sindhi communities in Mumbai. While Nanavati belonged to the Parsi community, Ahuja was a Sindhi. The case brought to the fore a conflict between the demand of masses and the rule of law. It was obvious that one had to bend in favour of the other.
Around the same time, Maharashtra Governor Vijaylakshmi Pandit (who was Jawaharlal Nehru’s sister) received a mercy petition for Bhai Pratap, a prominent Sindhi businessman dealing in import-export of sports goods. Bureaucrats agreed that he could be pardoned. KM Nanavati walked in the same circles as the Gandhi-Nehru family, and thus found favour from the newly-appointed Governor.
Nanavati was a decorated Naval officer who had previously worked in the power circles of the Nehru-Gandhi family. He was also close to V.K. Krishna Menon, the high commissioner to the United Kingdom, with whom he had worked as the Defence Attache before he was sent to Mumbai for taking on his Naval duties.
Vijaylaxmi Pandit could pardon Nanavati but that would cause unrest in the Sindhi community. Therefore she pounced on the chance and said that Bhai Pratap would be pardoned after Nanavati was pardoned.
Nanavati, meanwhile, garnered huge support from the public, the Indian Navy, and the Parsi community. Rallies were held on Bombay streets demanding to pardon of the convicted officer. Prem’s sister Mamie Ahuja was persuaded to forgive Nanavati. She gave her assent for his pardon in writing and Nanavati was released after spending three years in jail. Therefore, a small time Sindhi offender and Nanavati were both excused on the same day to avoid discontentment among either community.
Nanavati then left for Toronto, Canada with his wife and their children shortly after that and was never heard of again. He passed away in 2003. Sylvia and their three children continue to survive him.
Since the jury had also been influenced by media and public support for Nanavati and was also open to being misled, the Indian government abolished jury trials after this case.
Many movies, shows and books were inspired by the case, latest being Akshay’s “Rustom”.