Select the correct indirect form of the given sentence.

Shanti asked me, "Why did you keep this smartphone in the bin?"

Shanti asked me why I had kept that smartphone in the bin.

The correct indirect form of the given sentence is:

Shanti asked me why I had kept that smartphone in the bin.

The other options are incorrect:

• "Shanti asked me why I had been keeping that smartphone in the bin." This is incorrect because the reported statement is in the present perfect tense ("had been keeping"), but the reporting verb is in the past tense ("asked"). This means that the reported statement is describing an action that started in the past and continues to the present, but the speaker is talking about the past.
• "Shanti asked me why I kept that smartphone in the bin." This is incorrect because the reported statement is in the simple past tense ("kept"), but the reporting verb is in the past tense. This means that the reported statement is describing an action that happened before the reporting verb, but the tense of the reported statement is not changed to reflect this.
• "Shanti asked me why I was keeping that smartphone in the bin." This is incorrect because the reported statement is in the present progressive tense ("was keeping"), but the reporting verb is in the past tense. This means that the reported statement is describing an action that was happening at the same time as the reporting verb, which is not possible.