July 17: At least three films, reams of newsprint and much talk have been devoted to the 1959 Nanavati murder case in Mumbai.

Bachi Karkaria's In Hot Blood: The Nanavati Case That Shook India, launched at The Tata Steel Kolkata Literary Meet Double Bill at The Taj Bengal, is yet another retelling of a murder that fascinates India endlessly.

Naval commander Kawas Nanavati had shot his wife's lover, Prem Ahuja, and surrendered himself. He was eventually granted official pardon and status of a hero after a trial that brought a huge audience to the court. He left with his wife Sylvia and family for Canada, where he began a new life.

Karkaria's book attempts a new look at the Nanavati trial by critiquing the role class, community - and possibly gender - played during the trial to point at everything that worked in favour of Nanavati and against Ahuja. Life is unfair; and so is death.

"It was India's first upper class crime," said journalist and writer Karkaria. India was a new, idealistic nation, and the seduction of a navy officer's wife probably qualified as "anti-national", she said. Parsis (Nanavati was one) were a dominant community in Mumbai and Ahuja was a Sindhi businessman, member of a community that had "just arrived" after the Partition. "There was a social skew."

The tabloid Blitz ran a campaign for Nanavati, a tall, handsome man, and Krishna Menon's blue-eyed boy. Nanavati always came to court in uniform. "The jury was completely swayed." He was declared not guilty - this was one of the last cases in the country to be heard by a jury - and the case was tried again in Bombay High Court. Finally, Maharashtra governor Vijayalakshmi Pandit granted Nanavati pardon.

Nanavati died in 2003 in Canada. Karkaria had written to Sylvia, but received no reply.