The Hindu : Front Page : No improvement in Mahajan's condition

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 26, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

No improvement in Mahajan's condition

Staff Reporter

Still on life support, says Hinduja doctor; Pravin remanded to police custody till April 29

MUMBAI: The condition of Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Pramod Mahajan, who sustained multiple bullet injuries, is still critical. ``Overnight there has been no improvement," says a medical bulletin issued on the fourth day of his admission to the Hinduja Hospital here. His vital organs were severely damaged when his younger brother, Pravin, shot him last Saturday. Mr. Mahajan continues to be on life support.

Dr. Anupam Verma on Tuesday said Mr. Mahajan "continues to be maintained on high levels of ventilatory and ionotropic support. He continues to undergo CRRT (dialysis) for poor kidney function. In essence, a status quo has been there for the last 32 hours.''

While Pravin's counsel Nandkumar Rajurkar continues to maintain that his client is mentally unstable, the Mumbai police say that from his behaviour over the last four days, he appears mentally sound. He has been remanded to police custody till April 29. The police submitted, during a hearing of the remand application, that Pravin's action leaving his house with a loaded weapon was proof enough that the offence was intentional. He has been charged with attempt to murder.

On the mental instability plea, advocate Ujjwal Nikam told The Hindu : "As per Indian law, the burden of proof is heavily on the prosecution but if the accused takes any specific defence like insanity, then the burden of proof is on defence. Therefore, defence lawyer will be required to establish that the accused was mentally unsound before, during and after the incident and was unable to understand consequences of his action."

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