'Moitra probably blackmailed Pramod Mahajan'

Mumbai: Sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his elder brother Pramod, Pravin Mahajan has said in his appeal before the Bombay High Court that the senior BJP leader was being blackmailed by his secretary Vivek Moitra.

Pravin was sentenced by a sessions court last month and he has filed an appeal in the High Court.

A part of his deposition -- dealing with sequence of events at Pramod's residence before Pravin shot him – was recorded in-camera.

In the appeal, Pravin has said he went to meet Pramod on the morning of April 22, 2006 as he wanted to tell him that his secretary Vivek Moitra should not blackmail him (Pramod).

The appeal does not say why and how Moitra blackmailed Pramod. It only says Moitra "in all probability was blackmailing Pramod".

Pramod did not say anything when Pravin asked him as to how Moitra came to know about the BJP leader's relationship with one Alaknanda, the appeal says.

"This prompted Pravin to say that Pramod was a fit candidate for blackmail," the appeal added.

Then, according to Pravin, Pramod made certain remarks about the former's wife Sarangi. Pravin felt there was no use discussing the matter further, so he picked up the pistol lying nearby and was ready to leave.

Pramod, however, feared he wanted to do something, so he tried to grab the pistol, and shots were fired accidentally in the ensuing scuffle, the appeal says.

As to the trial court's verdict, the appeal says court should not have considered testimonies of Pramod's wife Rekha and his brother-in-law and senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde as both were "tutored" witnesses.

Rekha Mahajan tried to "invent" a false motive by telling the court that Pravin had demanded Rs one crore from Pramod a few days before the murder, it says.

The court should not have give credence to a threatening SMS sent by Pravin to Pramod either, appeal says, adding it was demonstrated before trial court by an expert witness that SMS texts could be tampered with.

It also questions Mahajan's statement to Munde on the way to hospital 'What was my offence that Pravin shot me?'

It says Rekha had not mentioned this in her statement to police, though she was in the car when Pramod was talking with Munde.

Mahajan would not have been in the condition to speak after losing so much blood, it says. It further points out that Pramod always called Pravin Chandu, and not by his given name.