Gopinath Munde aalleged that Pramod Mahajan had received a 'threatening' SMS from his brother Pravin a few days prior to being shot at by him last year.
After Rekha Mahajan revealed the motive for her husband’s murder, BJP leader Gopinath Munde, a family member, said on Wednesday that he knew that Pravin would harm Pramod and had threatened to eliminate him.
Munde testified before judge Shrihari P Davare that Pramod had shown Munde a text message from Pravin (sent to Pramod’s personal phone) a few days before the murder.
Munde described the tone as distinctly threatening. He quoted the text of the SMS, “Ab na hogi prarthna, ab na hogi yachna, ab na ran hoga, ab ya jeet hogi ya aant hoga.” (The time for prayers and discussion has passed, win or perish, we are at war now)
Dressed in starched white kurta, Munde arrived in court at 11.30am. After the oath, he went on to corroborate the evidence of Rekha Mahajan that Pramod and he had conversed about crime and its motive on the way to the hospital.
Munde told court that there was acrimony between the brothers after Pramod refused to give Rs1 crore to Pravin. He testified that Pramod had earlier showed him the SMS and dismissed it as pique on Pravin’s part. He refused to countenance any threat asking Munde to intercede and get Pravin to behave himself; but Pravin refused to discuss the matter with Munde.
After Munde’s spoke of the SMS, prosecutor Ujwal Nikam asked for time to confer with the investigating officer. He returned in seven minutes with an application for time to further investigate the new facts. He said that both prosecutor and police were taken aback by the disclosure and were so far unaware of this fact. The police needed time to approach the telephone company for transcripts and other material to corroborate Munde’s statement. The lawyers argued for over an hour over the application; after which the court deferred the matter for a day to Thursday morning.
The court has granted permission to the police to examine in the court premises; the three telephones and bills seized from the Mahajan residence (at 1501 Poorna apartments) during such further investigations.
Defence counsel Harshad Ponda said this was the second time the witnesses had surprised the investigating agencies with unforeseen disclosures.
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