Although the public will be able to access the in-camera statement of Pravin Mahajan after 20 years, it will only reflect his “callous depravity”, said special prosecutor in the case, Ujjwal Nikam.

Nikam said this testimony had nothing to do with Pravin’s motive of events before he shot Pramod, but just has “nasty allegations” against the latter. “Whatever comes out of the in-camera statements made by Pravin during the trial, will only make people hate him,” Nikam said.

Pravin was convicted for murdering his elder brother and BJP leader Pramod Mahajan on April 22 last year.=. Pravin was awarded the life term by a sessions court on Tuesday.

On October 30, Pravin was all set to present his version of the incident at Pramod’s Worli residence, after he reached there with a loaded gun, on the morning of April 22, 2006.

But at his very first statement, prosecutor Niteen Pradhan was on his feet demanding that the testimony be recorded in-camera. Since even the defence did not object, the court ordered it would not be published. Now, in his judgement, the judge said that prosecution’s theory that Pravin’s demand of Rs 1 crore was the root of the dispute between the brothers was not believable. So the real motive can be learnt only from Pravin’s statement.”

“Under section 8 of the Right to Information Act, information which has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court can not be accessed,” said Shailesh Gandhi, a noted RTI activist. “However, another section allows this information to be given out after 20 years,” Gandhi said.