December 19, 2007	Wednesday	Zilhaj 8, 1428

MUMBAI, Dec 18: The younger brother of a man once touted as a future leader of India’s main opposition Hindu nationalist party was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday for his murder.

The sentencing came a day after a judge found Pravin Mahajan guilty of murdering his elder brother Pramod in April 2006 in a case that India’s media likened to the biblical tale of Cain and Abel.

Pravin stormed into the apartment of his brother, a general secretary of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and former telecommunications minister, and pumped three bullets into him in a fit of rage over money, the court was told in India’s commercial hub Mumbai.

The prosecution sought the death penalty for Pravin for killing his brother, part of the BJP’s “Next Generation” and billed by supporters as a future party leader, calling it a “cold-blooded murder” that was “meticulously planned.”

But the lower court judge said the murder did “not fall under rarest of rare” category of cases under which the death penalty is imposed in India.

Pramod died of multi-organ failure after 12 days fighting for his life at the age of 56. He was the main poll strategist for the BJP as well as a formidable fundraiser.

The prosecution had argued “Pravin’s lust for money” was the motive behind the murder.

Pravin shot his brother because he resented his success and felt ignored and humiliated by him, police had said, even though the politician was reported to have supported him financially after their schoolteacher father died.

The shooting was a blow to the Bharatiya Janata Party which was hoping Pramod Mahajan could turn around its fortunes after its upset electoral defeat by Congress in 2004.

Pravin, 48, turned himself into police hours after the shooting.

The court was told Pramod’s last words to his brother-in-law were: “What was my fault that Pravin fired bullets at me?” Pravin gave no reaction when the sentence was passed.

“In the last few days I knew what was coming my way,” he had said when asked by the judge on Monday if he had anything to say.—AFP