NEW DELHI: The Hindustan Times Editor, Mr V N Narayanan, is understood to have abruptly resigned following a senior journalist exposing him of indulging in crass plagiarism in his most popular "Musings" column on Sundays.

The stunning lengthy exposure by B N Uniyal came in The Pioneer on Thursday as to how Narayanan had plagiarised a write-up by Bryan Appleyard that appeared in Sunday Times, London on February 28 in his last Sunday’s column.

The humiliated Narayanan reportedly put in his papers within an hour of the Hindustan Times management asking him to proceed on leave. He also reportedly told friends that he was retiring from the profession.

Perhaps he would be the first editor who had to resign on the charge of plagiarism which means taking somebody else’s ideas or words and use them as if they were one’s own.

Nobody in the newspaper was ready to confirm or deny his resignation except to state that only Executive President Shobhna Bhartiya, daughter of K K Birla, can answer the queries and that The Hindustan Times may carry the "information" in its Friday edition. The Friday edition, however, carried Narayanan name very much as the editor.

In a signed article, Uniyal had pointed out that only 11 of the 83 sentences or 35 of the 220 lines of Narayanan’s column captioned "For ever in transit" were his and the rest were bodily lifted from Bryan Appleyard’s write-up.

Quoting from the column and the write-up, Uniyal showed how Narayanan had not only taken Appleyard’s ideas but the whole sentences after sentences as if they were his original writing.