Is The Case Open-And-Shut?

In fact, the understanding on the first day itself was that Mahajan’s recovery could help the police determine the exact contours of the case, that it made sense to wait for his recovery. It helped that Mahajan counted NCP’s Sharad Pawar among his closest friends in Maharashtra. Pawar’s chosen man, R.R. Patil, heads the home ministry in Maharashtra. Sources say that the police were, indeed, given a free hand to deal with the case, so free that the victim could possibly have a say in framing of the case. In fact, the way the charges will be pressed against Pravin would depend on whether Pramod survived the attack or succumbed to it.

Independent investigations on other angles and for motives other than those elucidated by Pravin are unlikely to unfold. They could be too embarrassing or scandalous for the BJP and the entire family, and that’s something Pramod Mahajan would never want. As one of the men in the investigating team remarked, "There’s always a difference when we deal with political families and others, everyone has to be more conscious of reputations when a case involves a politician especially as high-profile as this. In this case, politicians as well as the family have closed ranks. How far the police can go is anybody’s guess."

What was Mahajan’s message to Munde? Decoded, it means that attempts should be made to see that Pravin faces as little penalty as possible, that the family must close ranks, that personal secrets must never become public. How far can the police go under such circumstances? The approach to protect reputations as well as real motives came to the fore right away. The police seem to be taking Pravin Mahajan’s confession and statement of motive—humiliation, neglect, insult and so on—at face value. Any other case would have prompted the investigating team to search for more credible motives. Any murder or attempt to murder investigation examines five motives: previous enmity, sudden quarrel, land matters, pecuniary gain, women matters, as the police term them. In this case, none of these angles are being explored for the moment.