Rohit Shekhar’s wife smothered him while he was drunk: Police

Around 3.30 pm on April 16, Shekhar was found unresponsive and bleeding from his nose in a first floor room at his Defence Colony bungalow by a domestic help, 17 hours after he returned from Uttarakhand.

Delhi Police on Wednesday arrested the widow of Rohit Shekhar Tiwari, son of late politician ND Tiwari, for murdering her husband by allegedly smothering him with a pillow and throttling him to death while he was in an inebriated state at their South Delhi home in the early hours of April 16 .

Last week, after news reports that there was trouble in the marriage that may have triggered the murder of Shekhar, Apoorva’s father denied the reports to a news agency and said the couple was happy. (PTI)

Police said the immediate trigger for the murder was Shekhar, 39, taunting Apoorva Shukla Tiwari, 35, with a story of how he and a woman relative of his had travelled in the same car and drank alcohol from the same glass, hours before, on the drive to Delhi from Uttarakhand, where he had gone to vote.

“But tension was also brewing between the couple since the beginning of their 11-month-long marriage and they were on the verge of divorce,” said Rajiv Ranjan, additional commissioner of police (crime branch).

Last week, after news reports that there was trouble in the marriage that may have triggered the murder of Shekhar, Apoorva’s father denied the reports to a news agency and said the couple was happy.

“When Apoorva married Shekhar, she had a lot of hopes and ambitions. But it was a turbulent and unhappy marriage for which she held the other woman responsible,” said Ranjan.

Around 3.30 pm on April 16, Shekhar was found unresponsive and bleeding from his nose in a first floor room at his Defence Colony bungalow by a domestic help, 17 hours after he returned from Uttarakhand. Ranjan said nobody in the family disturbed him until late afternoon because he suffered from insomnia.

When Shekhar was brought dead to Max Hospital in South Delhi’s Saket on April 16, the local police did not suspect murder until the autopsy report revealed that he had been smothered and strangulated.

For a week, the crime branch interrogated several suspects, including Apoorva, Shekhar’s half-brother Siddharth and four domestic help, before Apoorva “confessed” to the murder on Tuesday night, said Ranjan.

“During the drive from Uttarakhand to Delhi, Apoorva made a video call to Shekhar during which she realised that there was a woman in his car,” said an investigator, who declined to be named.

“When he got back, the couple had an altercation when Apoorva asked Shekhar about the woman. When he told her the woman’s name and taunted her about the two of them drinking from the same glass, Apoorva pounced on him and killed him,” the investigator added.

Police said it was a murder committed on the “spur of the moment” and they were yet to find evidence of any other person’s involvement in the crime.

Ranjan said the police had enough “scientific and circumstantial” evidence against Apoorva, but refused to elaborate. “Evidence can’t be discussed with the media as the probe continues,” said Ranjan.

On Wednesday, Apoorva was sent to two days in police custody. Her counsel, advocate Bharat Singh, opposed the remand on grounds that she was not required for investigation, had been interrogated for more than a week and “fully cooperated” with investigators.

Shekhar’s father ND Tiwari, a former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, had not married Rohit’s mother Ujjwala before his birth.Shekhar filed a paternity suit claiming ND Tiwari to be his biological father in 2012. A DNA test confirmed his claim. In 2014, ND Tiwari married Ujjwala.

Last May, Shekhar married Apoorva, a Supreme Court lawyer from Indore, after a year-long courtship.

“Apoorva has told us that she had been the president of the youth wing of a national trade union. When she had met Shekhar, she expected the marriage to fuel her political ambitions and that she would be the heir to her father-in-law’s properties. But Shekhar himself couldn’t get a foothold in politics and the family did not have much property,” said a senior police officer.

The family’s three-storey bungalow in Defence Colony is estimated to be worth tens of crores of rupees, but Shekhar’s mother, in her will, had divided the property between Shekhar and Siddharth in a 60:40 ratio, the investigator said. The property, according to the will, would accrue to the surviving brother.