Karanth admits guilt

NK SINGH

The renowned drama director and chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Film Development Corporation, Mr B.V. Karanth, who was arrested on Sunday night on a charge of attempting to bum to death Ms Vibha Mishra, the heroine of several of his plays, was on Monday remanded to judicial custody till June 10.

Karanth, who is one of the foremost theatre personalities in the country, reportedly broke down and "admitted his guilt" after the police intensively interrogated him for a couple of hours on Sunday night.

In a tape-reconded statement on Monday morning, he also admitted his "illicit relationship with the victim who is on her death bed with 80 per cent burns in a local hospital," according to the police.

"Yes, I have indeed admitted my guilt in a tape-recorded statement to the police", a calm and composed Karanth told ENS at Vibha Mishra's house, where he was brought by the police on Monday to help in the recovery of a rope with which the actress had allegedly tried, to hang herself shortly before she was burnt.

However, when the police produced him in the court before the additional chief judicial magistrate, Mr M.R. Pandey, later in the afternoon, refused to say anything at this stage. He told the court that his lawyer, Dhirendra Verma, would speak on his behalf. 

The director is believed to have told the police in his "confession" that it was a crime of passion and he had sprinkled kerosene on Vibha and set her a flame in a fit of blind rage after she called him "impotent" during a quarrel on Saturday afternoon.

Later, Karunth reportedly told the police, that he tried to put out the fire and burnt his hands in the process. When he was produced in the court on Monday both his hands were heavily bandaged.

Earlier in the day, he was taken by the police for a medico-legal test where the reputed forensic expert, Dr Heereshchandra examined him. He had also received injuries on his nose and mouth in a scuffle with Vibha Mishra shortly before she was burnt.

The police have seized and sent for forensic examination the clothes Karanth and Vibha Mishra were wearing at the time of the incident. Semen stains were also reportedly found on a petticoat of Vibha Mishra.

The kerosene tin has been sent to fingerprint experts.

Vibha Mishra, whose condition has been described by the doctors as "precarious", still insists that Karanth is not responsible for her burning. In a statement recorded before a magistrate, she claimed that she was "accidentally" burnt while cooking.

However, the police have found several contradictions in her statement. The forensic expert's opinion after an on-the-spot inspection of the scene of the crime is also reportedly against the accident theory.

Almost the entire staff of Bharat Bhawan, the multi-arts complex of the Madhya Pradesh Government, was present in the court to give moral support to Karanth, who is one of its life trustees besides being the director. Rangmandal, the state Government-backed repertory theatre.

Those present in the court included painter J. Swaminathan, director of Bharat Bhawan's art gallery Hundi novelist Krishna Baldev Vaid, Hindi critic Vijay Mohan Singh, and several artists of Rangmandal.

Swaminathan, who flew here on Monday morning from Delhi, told Karanth in the court compound "Take care". Karanth replied, "Everything is OK. I am neutral now." Later Swaminathan complained about the "dirty press coverage" of the incident. Several unrelated things, he said, were being reported.

"I am finished" the famous drama director exclaimed on Sunday night when his wife called on him at the police stations soon after his confession. "I am ready to face the consequences", he told this correspondent.

Indian Express 

May 26, 1986