Prosecution disputes defence claim of accidental firing

Mumbai, Dec 1 (UNI) The prosecution in the Pramod Mahajan murder case today disputed the defence contention that the BJP leader had been killed in a scuffle and accidental firing.

The contention was nothing but a desperate attempt to save the accused from almost certain death sentence, the prosecution told the court.

Furthering his arguments before Additional Sessions Judge Shrihari Davre, special public prosecutor Nitin Pradhan contended that had there been a scuffle (between accused Pravin Mahajan and the late BJP leader) and the firing taken place accidently, the situation would have been completely different. The accused, in that case, as a spontaneous natural reaction, would have tried to get immediate medical help for the victim, would have called for help, would have helped or offered his vehicle to take him to hospital.

The accused did nothing of these and instead left Pramod Mahajan to die, because he wanted him to die, the special public prosecutor said and added that the accused had stopped firing only when the third bullet got stuck in the pistol's barrel. That conduct of the accused falsifies the theory of scuffle and accidental firing and goes on to prove his intention to kill the BJP leader, the special public prosecutor told the court.

On Rekha Mahajan's evidence, Advocate Pradhan said the wife of the slain leader was a natural eyewitness to the scene of incident.

She had heard sound of two bullets being fired and when she reached the scene of offence, she had herslf seen accused Pravin attempting to fire the third bullet from his pistol, he said, adding that their domestic help Mahesh Wankhede, who followed Rekha, also saw Pravin attempting to fire more bullets at Pramod Mahajan.

Both, Rekha Mahajan and Wankhede have asserted in their testominies that Pravin was standing while Pramod Mahajan was in a sitting position when the incident took place. Advocate Pradhan said, medical evidence brought on record, corroborates their testimonies.

It is the case of the prosecution that Pravin had intentionaly fired at his elder brother, Pramod, on April 22 last year at the late leader's residence in Worli. Pravin Mahajan, in his defence, has taken the stand that at the relevant time, there had been scuffle between him and his brother and bullets were fired accidentally.

UNI