The tragedy of the Mahajan family

Though Pravin Mahajan never admitted killing elder brother Pramod, he also never regretted the death of the man who had been a father figure to him and the Mahajan clan.

Unlike Pramod, Pravin had no political ambitions. His brother “ignoring the family” ruined their relationship. Pravin wanted to see his beloved vahini (sister-in-law) Rekha, Pramod’s wife, happy; but his act destroyed her life.

Pramod, eldest of five siblings, was older to Pravin by 11 years. The latter always said Pramod took care of his upbringing, education, and marriage after their father Venkatesh’s death in 1971. The bond between the brothers was very strong until the mid-1990s. Pramod fondly called Pravin Chandu.

In his book Mazha Album (My Album), Pravin said relations between the brothers soured when Pramod started ignoring Rekha. “I knew vahini before she came into our home,” he wrote.

“She sold her gold ring to buy a ring for my wife Sarangi on our engagement. I had no objection to Pramod’s personal life, but I could not bear the trauma vahini faced due to his behaviour. I saw a question mark in her eyes.”

Pravin would recall every moment he had spent with Pramod, whose framed photo still hangs in a prominent place in Pravin’s Thane home. “He was a born genius,” he told DNA in an exclusive interview when he was out on furlough in December. “He worked hard for his party, the BJP. He took up the family’s responsibility when he was just 21. There cannot be a second Pramod Mahajan.”

Pravin felt that power in Delhi spoilt Pramod. He, however, never admitted killing the BJP general secretary. He only repeated a statement by Kahlil Gibran: “The murdered is not unaccountable for his own murder.”

Pravin’s relations with his other siblings — Pratima, Prakash, and Pradnya — were not so good. He would call Prakash and Gopinath Munde, Pradnya’s husband, cowards for not questioning Pramod’s neglect of his wife. He was pained, however, when his mother Prabhavati disowned him after Pramod’s death. Pravin’s own family, wife Sarangi and twins Vrushali and Kapil, paid a heavy price for his act. Only Sarangi’s brothers Prasad and Shailesh Pulliwar supported them. They had to sell their ancestral land near Nagpur to pay for Pravin’s court case.