Rohit Tiwari’s wife allegedly murdered him in “frustration”, his mother tells Delhi court

PTI, Feb 16, 2020, 10:54 AM IST

New Delhi: Rohit Shekhar Tiwari, the son of former Uttarakhand chief minister N D Tiwari, was murdered by his wife Apoorva Shukla “in frustration when she did not succeed in her plans”, his mother told a Delhi court on Saturday.

The submission was made by Rohit’s mother Ujjwala Tiwari before Additional Sessions Judge Sandeep Yadav during recording of her statement as a prosecution witness in the murder case.

Ujjwala alleged that Shukla, arrested in connection with Rohit’s murder, had married him as he was the son of the late veteran politician and she believed she would get a ticket to contest elections at Indore after marrying him.

Ujjwala, who was represented by advocate Tariq Nasir, further alleged that relations were tensed between Rohit and his wife immediately after their marriage and that she fought with him on trivial issues.

She claimed that Shukla allegedly pressurised Rohit to not keep his mother with them at their house and get a separate bungalow for her in Delhi so that she could get her father treated here.

“When she did not succeed in her plans, she (Shukla) murdered him (Rohit) in frustration,” Ujjwala alleged.

She claimed that after Rohit’s death, Shukla tried to stop the postmortem proceedings.

“Shukla said what was the necessity of postmortem. If postmortem was conducted, how will we bathe the body with holy water,” Ujjwala said.

The court has put up the matter for further hearing on February 26.

The court had earlier directed the Tihar jail authorities to provide necessary treatment to Shukla at a good hospital other than the jail dispensary and Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Hospital for her psychological problems which include depression and sleep disorder.

The prison authorities had told the court in their reply that she was already undergoing treatment from a psychiatrist in the jail.

They had said she was undergoing psycho-therapy sessions in jail for her problems like inability to control her anger, poor quality of sleep, bad dreams.

Advocate Mehmood Pracha, representing Shukla, had told the court that her condition was at the “threshold” stage and if allowed to become severe, she would not be able to recover from it.

“Her symptoms are serious in nature. She might be suffering from bipolar disorder (mental health condition that causes extreme mood swings that include emotional highs and lows). She is already suffering from depression. Her condition is becoming worse day-by-day. If this crosses the boundary, it would be a point of no return,” the counsel had said.

He had claimed that Shukla was not getting proper treatment from the jail doctors or at the DDU Hospital.

Shukla, a lawyer, was arrested on April 26 last year on charges of Tiwari’s murder.

Rohit Shekhar, the son of late veteran politician N D Tiwari, was smothered to death on the intervening night of April 15 and 16, an autopsy report had said.