Pravin Mahajan

Mumbai, March 3: Pravin Mahajan, who shot dead his brother and senior BJP leader Pramod Mahajan four years ago, died this evening in a Thane hospital following multiple-organ failure, leaving the real reasons behind the murder shrouded in mystery.

Pravin is survived by his wife Sarangi, son Kapil and daughter Vrushali.

Convicted of his elder brother’s murder, the 50-year-old Pravin was released on a 14-day furlough from the Nasik central jail but the evening before he was supposed to report back to prison, he suffered brain haemorrhage and slipped into a coma.

Put on life-support system, Pravin’s condition deteriorated two days ago. He was declared dead at 5.40pm today.

Ravindra Ghwat, the ICU in-charge of Jupiter Hospital, said Pravin was brought to the hospital on December 11 midnight in an unconscious state with extensive brain haemorrhage.

The youngest of the three Mahajan brothers, Pravin was arrested on the morning of April 22, 2006, minutes after he shot Pramod with a licensed revolver at the BJP leader’s Worli house. Pramod’s wife Rekha and two domestic helps were in the house when Pravin stepped out, took a taxi to Worli police station and surrendered his weapon.

Rushed to Hinduja hospital by his brother-in-law and fellow BJP leader Gopinath Munde, Pramod succumbed to injuries 12 days later.

Police investigations later revealed that Pravin had left his Thane house early in the morning with his loaded revolver and driven his car to Pramod’s house at Purna in Worli.

After some arguments, Pravin had allegedly pumped three bullets into his brother’s lower chest and abdomen.

Following an eight-month trial, a Mumbai sessions court convicted him of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment. Pravin made allegations on Pramod’s character but he was cut short by the court, which later recorded his statement in-camera.

During his stay in jail, Pravin penned an autobiography in Marathi, Maza Album (My Album). In the book, Pravin had described Pramod as “a fixer, dealer, double-dealer and a conspirator” who either relied on “buying” people or “scaring” them into submission.

The book had also alleged that the former BJP general secretary handled huge sums of money when he was the campaign in-charge of several elections between 1998 and 2004, and he had never revealed the source of these funds to the party.

On behalf of the Mahajan and Munde families, the third brother, Prakash Mahajan, had denied the allegations and threatened legal action but no case was filed.

While Pravin remained in a coma, his wife Sarangi had appealed to the Maharashtra government to foot the medical expenses. However, the government had informally indicated two days ago that it was not willing to bear the expenses.