Sex, lies, videotape and a minister

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, or in this case, your friend's wife. It's a common sense commandment for avoiding complications in one's life, and one that Harathalu Halappa appears to have violated (excuse the pun).

Former Karnataka Food and Civil Supplies Minister Harathalu Halappa

Halappa's story reeks so much of the masala so excessively dished out in our movies that it appears almost staged. Almost, because the facts in the case, at first glance, are so straight-forward and damning, that it's a wonder how the man wasn't convicted or even jailed earlier. Delve deeper, however, and the plot thickens.
The 'Rape'
On the night of November 26, 2009, the then Food and Civil Supplies Minister of the Karnataka government went to the house of his friend Venkatesh Murthy for dinner and allegedly decided to stay the night.
"In the middle of the night, Halappa, who was sleeping on the first floor, came down and told me that he was suffering from chest pain," says Murthy, "He asked me to rush to the government guest house where he had kept his medicine in the baggage. When I returned after a while, I was shocked to see Halappa semi-nude and my wife squatted on the bed wailing."
So far, it's simple: Murthy returns to find Halappa in a 'compromising position'. What happens next is baffling.
Instead of stopping what was supposedly happening before him, Murthy whips out his cell phone and begins shooting a video.

Chandravarthi and Venkatesh Murthy

The Video 'Evidence'
The video footage submitted to the Karnataka Police is spread over four different clips.
The first clip of 32 seconds shows a man, believed to be Halappa, in a pair of bermuda shorts, semi-nude forcing himself on a woman who is not clearly visible. She is believed to be Chandravathi, Murthy's wife.
The second clip, 20 seconds long, shows the same man facing the camera and the woman, wearing a nightie and mending her hair. There are no signs of panic.
The third clip of 47 seconds shows blood stains on the floor of the bedroom floor. This time the woman is seen lying on the bed and wailing and constantly rubbing her nose. She is also heard babbling.
The fourth clip of 1 minutes 5 seconds shows the woman wearing a nightie with dishevelled hair sitting on the bed. She is seen holding and waving a cloth. In this clipping, too, she is seen sobbing.
Remember, this happened in November 2009 and the incident was reported in a local paper on May 2, 2010: More than five months later.

The Fallout
Halappa submitted his resignation the same day the report emerged in print.
"The allegation is not true. It's a political conspiracy against me. There are one or two of our own people [BJP] and those of opposition [who conspired against me]", he said.
And immediately, Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa ordered a CID probe. "Let the truth come out. Whoever is guilty should get punishment," he told reporters in Bangalore a day later.
The timing of the report was not lost on Yeddyurappa: "Why was this brought out just before Panchayat elections [on May 8, the report emerged on May 2]?"
And as the political conspiracy theory began doing the rounds, the holes in Venkatesh Murthy and wife's story began to widen even more.
The then State unit president Eshwarappa questioned the motives behind the whole episode: "Will any man with self-respect take a photo and video when someone is raping his wife? He will murder the rapist. Will anybody change the bedspread after the rape? This is a conspiracy to destroy Halappa politically."
The police, too, were baffled by Murthy's wife, Chandravarthy. She claimed that she had preserved the clothes she and Halappa wore when she was raped. And she wanted the clothes be sent for a DNA test. The police wondered how a woman could preserve the clothes for this long and endure the trauma of rape without filing a complaint soon after the incident.
And soon, the questions began pouring in.

The Unanswered Questions
A husband who comes in and finds his wife being sexually assaulted does not by instinct go for the mobile, switch on the camera, and film the scene. So, had Venkatesh come prepared to film the act with the camera on?
If Venkatesh was agitated, as he was on that Sunday morning in May -- five months after the 'rape' -- when he revealed the details of the episode, why did he not file a case against Halappa the very next morning in November? Why did it take over five months for the rape episode to surface. Rape victims do not take five months to press charges.
In the clip shown by TV channels, Chandravathy's husband Venkatesh is also seen for a fleeting second talking on his mobile. He had claimed that he had filmed the sexual assault on his mobile. If he was talking on the mobile, who shot the clip?
Chandravathy was seen raving and ranting on the video clipping, but she does not name the minister. In one of the video clippings, she is seen distraught. Was she forced into the act by others?
And finally, Venkatesh's first wife Sumitra has accused him in the media of being an expert blackmailer. She was quoted as saying: "Venkatesh is a rogue. He can stoop to any level to make money. He is a blackmailer who uses women. This could be one of his dirty jobs."
So, was Chandravathy just a pawn in the story? Indeed, was Halappa the pawn?
After 10 months of investigations, the CID has now charged the former minister with rape. Does the story end here? I think not.
Source: India Syndicate