'Pravin's text message to Pramod could be fabricated'

A computer technician from Pune, who deposed before the sessions court in the Pramod Mahajan murder trial as a defence witness on Thursday, stated that a text message could be fabricated in a mobile phone through computer software.

Defence witness Hari Krishna, who has three years working experience with computer related mobile phone functioning, told Additional Sessions Judge Shrihari Davare that by using a software called Microsoft Visual Studio, text messages can be tampered with or created in the mobile phone.

"Even the date and time saved on the memory card of the sender or receiver's mobile can be tampered by connecting it to the computer via a card-reader," he revealed.

The defence witness added, "The details on the server computer of the sender or the receiver could not be tampered with."

Pramod's brother Pravin, who allegedly shot him on April 22 last year, had sent him a threatening SMS a few days prior to the incident, according to a prosecution witness. Earlier, the prosecution had submitted a report from a telecommunication company, stating that a text message had been received by Pramod from his brother's mobile number.

However, the content is stored in the server only for 24 hours after the message is sent, the report stated. The report did not mention the content, as the issue was raised after the passage of more than a year of the incident.