MUMBAI, 18 December 2007 — A court in Mumbai yesterday found the younger brother of slain Hindu nationalist party leader and former Federal Minister Pramod Mahajan guilty of his murder last year.
Judge S.P. Davare found Pravin Mahajan guilty of murder and trespass with intent to commit a serious offense. He is expected to be sentenced today, with the prosecution pushing for either the death penalty or life behind bars. Pramod Mahajan was shot by Pravin on April 22, 2006.
Judge Davare, while convicting Pravin, relied on the statements of the deceased leader’s wife Rekha, domestic servant Mahesh and on Pramod’s own statement he gave to his brother-in-law and BJP national Vice President Gopinath Munde while he was being taken to hospital after shot by Pravin.
“We have the choice of seeking a life sentence or the death penalty. I will reveal my cards tomorrow,” chief prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said yesterday.
“It is necessary for the prosecution to first know on what ground the accused has been found guilty and whether the case falls in the rarest of rare cases. Depending on this we shall seek the sentence for Pravin,” Nikam told journalists outside the courtroom.
Another special public prosecutor Nitin Pradhan during the course of trial had sought death penalty for Pravin. Surprisingly, no one from Pramod’s family was present in the court yesterday.
Pravin stormed into the apartment of his elder brother, a general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party and former telecommunications minister, and pumped three bullets into his upper body. “The court has reached an inescapable conclusion in the case,” the judge ruled.
Pramod, who was 56, died of multiple-organ failure 12 days after the shooting — reportedly the culmination of a bitter personal feud and family dispute.
“In the last few days I knew what was coming my way,” Pravin said when asked by the judge if he had anything to say.
