By IANS
Mumbai : A trial court here Tuesday sentenced Pravin Mahajan to life imprisonment for killing his elder brother, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Pramod Mahajan, in April last year.
Pravin was also slapped a fine of Rs.20,000 for criminal trespass. According to court orders, five years of the sentence will be rigorous imprisonment and the rest will be ordinary.
Sessions Judge S.P. Davare pronounced the verdict before a jam-packed courtroom at around 3.30 p.m. following over four hours of heated arguments between the prosecution and defence over the quantum of sentence.
The prosecution, terming it as the “rarest of rare cases” demanded death penalty for the Pravin.
However, Davare rejected the prosecution’s plea, saying it was not the case meriting hangman’s noose.
The prosecution battery was led by Special Public Prosecutor Ujwal Nikam and Public Prosecutor Nitin Pradhan, while Harshad Ponda argued on behalf of Pravin.
Pravin’s brother-in-law Prasad Kuliwar had told IANS Monday evening that the family would appeal against the judgement before the Bombay High Court.
Pravin was declared guilty of murder Monday under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and of criminal trespass under Section 449.
He had gone to Pramod’s residence in Purna building, Worli, around 7.45 a.m. April 22, 2006. After a brief argument, he pumped three bullets into Pramod’s abdomen. A fourth bullet got wedged in the revolver, which malfunctioned.
Pravin later surrendered himself at the Worli police station.
The trial took nine months, during which 32 witnesses were examined. The most prominent were Rekha, Pramod Mahajan’s widow, and Gopinath Munde, his brother-in-law and colleague in the BJP.