NEW DELHI: Three days after late politician ND Tiwari’s son Rohit Shekhar Tiwari was found dead under mysterious circumstances at his Defence Colony home in south Delhi, Delhi Police on Friday registered a case of murder, based on the autopsy report.
The autopsy was conducted by a medical board comprising five senior doctors of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and the report revealed that Rohit died of “asphyxia” as he was strangulated and smothered.
Following the report, the police on Thursday registered a case of murder and transferred the case to the Crime Branch for investigation. Delhi Police spokesperson Anil Mittal said that the autopsy report came late on Thursday night. “It said that Rohit was smothered. We immediately registered an FIR under Section 302 (of murder under the Indian Penal Code) and the case was transferred to the Crime Branch,” said Mittal.
Earlier in the day, a Crime Branch forensic team visited Rohit’s home to collect the CCTV footage. They also questioned his family members and servants. His wife Apoorva is currently not in Delhi.
On Tuesday afternoon, Rohit’s wife found him unresponsive and he was rushed to Max Hospital in Saket. Initially, the police had ruled out any foul play. His mother Ujjwala Tiwari, who was admitted at Max hospital, had received a call from her house about her son being “unwell and bleeding from the nose,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Vijay Kumar had said.
“Max hospital received an emergency call from the residence of Rohit Shekhar Tiwari at 4.41 pm this (Tuesday). An ambulance brought Tiwari to Max Hospital, Saket, where he was declared brought dead at the emergency department,” the hospital had said. After receiving news of her son’s death, Ujjwala had made a cryptic statement. “His (Rohit’s) death is natural. I have no suspicion, but I will reveal later what circum-stances led to his death,” she had said.
Never far away from spotlight in life & death
Both in life and death, late ND Tiwari’s son Rohit made it to the headlines due to the extraordinary chain of events that surrounded him.His brush with the media happened as soon as he went on to claim his right of being the biological son of ND Tiwari. Rohit waged a long legal battle from 2008 to 2014 to prove that he was the son of the former Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand chief minister.
Initially, Rohit filed the paternity suit in 2007 in the Delhi High Court and because of some technical problems, a fresh suit was filed in 2008. The case went on for six years, wherein ND Tiwari initially refused to give his blood sample.
In 2012, a DNA test report confirmed that the Congress veteran was his biological father. Tiwari’s lawyers approached the Delhi High Court seeking outside settlement in the paternity suit, requesting the court to refer the matter for mediation.
In 2014, Tiwari invited Rohit to his house, and apparently told him that he was tired of fighting. Later, he confessed that Rohit was his son. The same year, he married Rohit’s mother Ujjwala Sharma. Tiwari died last year on Oct. 18.
In 2017, Rohit joined the BJP before the Uttarakhand polls and reportedly had plans of joining the Congress. He was living with his family in South Delhi’s Defence Colony, from where he was rushed to a hospital where he was declared brought dead on Tuesday.But, the death itself became the news once the police said Rohit was probably killed by being smothered with a pillow.
What medical board said
“Death in this case is asphyxia as a result of strangulation and smothering. It is a sudden unnatural death, placed in the category of homicide.”