Tuesday, May 9 2006 11:31 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Praveen, who has been charged with murder, surrendered his Browning pistol to police with four live cartridges after he shot the BJP leader.

The pistol, the empty shells seized from Pramod Mahajan's house and the three bullets extracted from his body during post-mortem were sent to ballastic experts as part of the routine examination.

The report that reached police last week has confirmed that the extracted bullets matched with the empty shells and had same markings on each of them as the bore of the imported firearm of Praveen, the sources said.

Worli police sources said the ballastic report was a vital evidence in the case being prepared against Praveen.

Police has already sent for forensic tests, the blood samples collected at Mahajan's residence and the blood-soaked clothes of the leader while the BJP leader's wife Rekha has also told police that she was present when Praveen fired the third shot at her husband.

Pramod Mahajan was shot at by Praveen at the politician's Worli residence on April 22. Mahajan died at Hinduja Hospital on May three after battling for life for 12 days.