http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-southasia.asp?parentid=80869
INDIA: Court gags media after Pravin's 'scandalous' remark Judge tells journalists to move outside of courtroom during murder trial of prominent Indian politician Times of India Wednesday, October 31, 2007 Mumbai --- The Pramod Mahajan murder trial took a dramatic turn on Tuesday when a statement in court by his brother Pravin, who is accused of the murder, was declared in-camera after the prosecution said that it was likely to be scandalous. Special public prosecutor Nitin Pradhan said that Pramod was like a "father figure" in the Mahajan household and it seemed that Pravin was going to say things about his character, and a "public gaze upon it would not help anybody". Judge Srihari Daware then asked mediapersons in the courtroom to move out and also barred them from reporting the first few sentences of Pravin's statement that had prompted Pradhan to say: "It tends to appear that the statement will scandalise the deceased (sic)." Pravin's counsel Harshad Ponda maintained that his client only wanted to tell the court what actually transpired on the day of the incident. "No witness was present when Pravin met his brother," Ponda said. He added that Pravin was going to reveal more as he did not want to hide anything. At one point, judge Daware did ask Pravin why he thought that the various witnesses in the case, including Mahajan's wife Rekha and other family members, had given false testimony in court. "I think the witnesses want to hide the reality," Pravin replied. Pravin, who went on oath to stand as a witness in his own trial, an unusual development in a murder trial, will now be able to lead evidence in the case to defend himself and also undergo cross-examination by the prosecution. Pravin also informed the court that he was going to call in a Pune-based engineer, P Harikrishnan, to testify as a defence witness. Harikrishnan is supposed to be a family friend. Ponda tried to clarify that Pravin only wanted his statement to be recorded by the court and the prosecution should not presume that what he was going to say was scandalous. "I am only interested that the court should give a fair hearing to Pravin," Ponda said. Before Pravin started making statement on what would have been his brother's 58th birthday, both the prosecution and defence lawyers agreed that it did not seem a case of acquittal from the evidence that was there so far. Judge Daware allowed Pravin to "enter on his defence" and lead any evidence in support under Section 233 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Date Posted: 10/31/2007
