PTI
  
Mumbai, May 18: Pravin Mahajan, accused of killing his elder brother and BJP general secretary Pramod Mahajan, on Wednesday urged a local court to allow him newspapers in jail, return his car seized by the police, and send him for psychiatric tests as his judicial custody was extended till May 31.

Pravin, who appeared before the court through video conferencing, also pleaded to the court allow him to move out of the high security egg-shaped cell in the central prison twice a day, as he felt suffocated in the four corners of the cell.

The court asked prosecutor Srikant Bhat to file his arguments on May 19 on Pravin's plea for newspapers, return of car, psychiatric tests and liberty to come out of the cell within the jail premises for a brief period every day.

Pravin, attired in a striped shirt and dark blue trousers, appeared on television while sitting on a chair at the central prison as Magistrate M Y Shaikh talked to him from the court located at Bhoiwada in central Mumbai.

Earlier, the prosecutor informed the court that the charge had been altered to section 302 IPC, murder, after the death of Pramod Mahajan. Earlier, Pravin was charged with section 307 IPC, attempt to murder, after he had shot at Pramod on April 22.

When the magistrate asked Pravin what he had to say, the accused said that he wanted to read newspapers in jail. This facility was available to him earlier in police custody, but now that he was in judicial custody newspapers were not available to him.

The court asked him to instruct his lawyers to make an application to this effect so that it could pass an appropriate order.