A computer technician on Thursday told the sessions court conducting the Pramod Mahajan murder trial that a text message, better known as SMS, received on a mobile phone, could be fabricated by using specialised computer software.

Hari Krishna, who deposed as the defence witness, hails from Pune. He has dealt with mobile phones for three years. He told Additional Sessions Judge Srihari Davare that by using the software  “Microsoft Visual Studio,” text messages could be tampered with or created in the mobile phone.

“Even the date and time saved on the memory card of the cell phone of the sender or receiver can be tampered with by connecting it to the computer via a card-reader,” he claimed.

He said details on the server computer of the sender or receiver could not be tampered with. Two prosecution witnesses, Mahajan’s brother-in-law Gopinath Munde and daughter Poonam, had claimed that Pravin Mahajan had sent a threatening SMS to Pramod  prior to his murder on April 22, 2006. Munde as well as Pramod’s widow Rekha had claimed that Pravin had demanded Rs 1 crore from his brother, who had expressed his inability to raise the amount.

Munde during his deposition, had disclosed about the threatening SMS in which Pravin purportedly warned Pramod to face dire consequences. Munde had recalled the SMS stating in Hindi, “Now, there will be no prayers, no requests. There will be war which will result either in victory or an end.”

Poonam Mahajan, who had Pramod’s mobile phone with her, produced the saved SMS in the court. The mobile phone company Reliance Infocomm confirmed that Pramod’s mobile had indeed received an SMS from Pravin’s mobile on that particular date. The   contents of that SMS could not be traced on the main server as they could be stored only for 24 hours.