INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - DECEMBER 16^th - DECEMBER 31^st - 2007

PRAVIN MAHAJAN GETS LIFER; PROSECUTION TO SEEK DEATH

Pravin Mahajan has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the cold blooded murder of his elder brother and senior BJP leader Pramod Mahajan but the prosecution said it would appeal pressing for the maximum death penalty. Rejecting the prosecution plea for capital punishment, additional sessions judge S P Davare said, "The murder is not a rarest of rare case and therefore death need not be indicted. This is not an extreme case of grave culpability."

The sentence was pronounced a day after Pravin (48) was convicted on the charges of murder and house trespass with the intention to commit a serious offence. In addition to the life term for the murder, Pravin was sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment for house trespass. Both the terms will run concurrently. The convict was also ordered to pay a fine of Rs 15,000 and Rs 5,000 for the murder and trespass offences respectively.

Public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said the prosecution would appeal in the high court for an enhancement of the sentence. "We will read the judgment after which we will seek an enhancement of the sentence from the Bombay high court," Nikam told reporters outside the court. He said the murder fell in the rarest of rare case category since he has killed the "concept of brotherhood".

Pramod Mahajan's family said justice has been done though they had sympathy for the wife and children of Pravin who were suffering for his acts. During arguments on quantum of punishment, the prosecution sought death sentence for Pravin, saying he deserved no leniency since he had murdered "in a brutal manner with total disregard to human life".