Greed, ego behind Mahajan's murder: Police

Greed for money and injured ego were the two main reasons that prompted Praveen Mahajan to kill his elder brother and Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Pramod Mahajan, according to the chargesheet filed by the police in the court last week.

The 650-page chargesheet contains statements of Praveen and 58 witnesses, including Pramod's wife Rekha Mahajan and the domestic servant who allegedly saw Praveen firing shots at his brother at the BJP leader's residence in Worli, Mumbai, on April 22.

The chargesheet also reveals how Praveen allegedly planned the murder and executed it with a pre-meditated mind. Praveen has told the police that he had differences with Mahajan for the past 20 years and although the latter was helping him financially, he (Praveen) felt it was not enough.

According to Praveen, he had no access to Mahajan and had to reach him through his (Pramod's) secretary, which he could not tolerate. He felt that his brother was humiliating him.

As per Praveen's statement, on April 22, he had planned to kill his brother if family issues were not settled. With this in mind, he had set out from his Thane house at 5:20 am in his car. It took him nearly two hours from travel from Thane to Worli and in between, he stopped on the way to ponder over the plan to kill Pramod.

Praveen said that upon reaching his brother's house, he had initiated talks on family ties but Pramod kept reading the newspaper. Then Pramod reportedly switched on a sports channel on the television and ignored him, Pravin stated.