When the BJP was in power, fixer, fund-raiser and technocrat
Pramod Mahajan was their minister of telecommunications and
information technology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pramod_Mahajan
The typically checkered career of an Indian power-broker
When he was out-of-power, Pramod Mahajan was shot dead
by his own brother, for motives still unclear. It took him twelve
days to die.
Very recently, Mahajan's young son, Rahul, announced his intention to enter politics and take his father's place, despite the
fact that his father was killed by his uncle, Hamlet-style.
Dad's private secretary and chief henchman, Vivek Moitra,
joined the kid for a late-night champagne celebration.
According to the household staff, three strangers showed
up at the party. After the strangers left, Moitra
and the son vomited all over the floor and passed out.
The secretary is now stone-dead and the son, Rahul, is critically ill.
Just like his dad did, Rahul's now lingering in a hospital
and fighting for life.
The suggestion so far: "suspected food poisoning."
I don't want to come across all Edgar Allen Poe here,
but no matter how bad a typical bottle of Indian champagne
may be, bad booze is just not likely to kill off a couple of heavy-duty political hustlers in a matter of two hours. That doesn't
add up, folks. A dumb kid on the brink of power might possibly drink himself fatally stupid on rotgut, but a middle-aged private secretary? What are the odds?
There is something rotten in the state of Maharashtra.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1606867.cms
Rahul Mahajan critical; cops looking out for late-night visitors
[ Friday, June 02, 2006 11:31:07 amPTI ]
"NEW DELHI: Preliminary police investigation into the suspected food poisoning of Rahul Mahajan, son of late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, and the death of his secretary Vivek Moitra is centered around three 'unidentified' persons who had visited his residence late Thursday night.
"Police said the trio had visited Mahajan's residence twice in the night and allegedly had champagne with Mahajan and Moitra.
"'We are trying to ascertain the identities of the three and investigations are on in that direction,' Additional DCP, New Delhi, Manish Aggarwal told reporters.
"He said police has recovered 'some white powder' in a polythene from the scene and has sent it for chemical examination.
"'It is a very small sample and details about it would be known only after chemical examination,' he added.
"'The scene of the incident at Mahajan's 7, Safdarjung residence was disturbed as the household staff had kept the champagne bottles and glasses in a cupboard and cleaned up the vomit of Mahajan and Moitra from the floor of the house,' Aggarwal said.
"He said the household staff, identified as Ganesh and Anil, had found Rahul and Vivek lying unconscious in the wee hours and rushed them to Apollo hospital. Hospital authorities then informed the Station House Officer (SHO) of Tuglak Road police station about the incident, he said.
"On questioning, the servants told police that Rahul was expecting some friends. "
(((The worst-case scenario is that they were midnight poisoners and they actually ARE Rahul's "friends." Why do father, brother, son and henchman all have to face death or ruination? I see three
possible scenarios here.)))
((((A) it's all coincidence and this is an Indian political family even less lucky than the Gandhis; (B) somebody hates the Mahajan clan in and of itself; (C) they're being rubbed out because they all knew the same secret.)))
(((If it's (C), then it likely works like this. The brother killed Pramod for it. The henchman knew and initiated the son. The son decided to use his father's abandoned weapon – tapes, CDs, telecom smear stuff, whatever – to assure his own passage to power. That was when the political "friends" dropped by to reason with him. The kid has them by the short hairs and didn't back down, so they pretended to knuckle and had a toast to seal the "bargain." Then they left them blackmailers puking and passing out on the spot.)))
Sound a little too farfetched and sinister? Maybe. Pramod Mahajan had a reputation for icing a female journalist to cover-up his love-affair with her.
From Wikipedia:
"The Shivani Bhatnagar affair
"Mahajan was accused of orchestrating the murder of former Indian Express journalist Shivani Bhatnagar by Madhu Sharma, the wife of IPS officer Ravi Kant Sharma, who was himself accused of the murder and in police custody.
" Bhatnagar had been murdered in January 23, 1999. The investigation had gone on for three years and was out of the media spotlight till Sharma's arrest. His motive for the murder, according to the Delhi Police, was that he had fathered Bhatnagar's child and was under pressure from her to marry him.
"Madhu made statements in the press claiming that it was in fact Mahajan who had the affair and fathered the journalist's child. She challenged him for a DNA test to prove her case. Mahajan agreed to take a DNA test but eventually didn't as the Delhi Police rubbished Sharma's wife's claim as an emotional outburst. (((These killings always involve "emotional outbursts" – that's why Pramod Mahajan himself was killed, supposedly.)))
"It was alleged that Sharma's arrest and the consequent focus on the case by the national media was orchestrated by Lal Krishna Advani (((early BJP sex-smear, 1999))) who sought to put Mahajan in his place. Mahajan was seen as a challenge to the Advani camp due to his proximity to Vajpayee."
(((In other words, the Shivani Bhatnagar case was a political sexual-outing before-the-letter, in pursuit of BJP palace intrigues. Mahajan survived it politically, but the woman – okay, the female political journalist, let's be clear here – was assassinated.)))
http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/nov/03sld4.htm
The late Shivani Bhatnagar, a correspondent for the
INDIAN EXPRESS who was almost pretty enough
to be a Bollywood actress:
