Apoorva Shukla Tiwari has been arrested for allegedly murdering husband Rohit Shekhar (File)
While marital discord was the underlying reason behind the murder of late Congress stalwart ND Tiwari's son Rohit Shekhar Tiwari, him sharing drinks with a woman relative triggered the last fight between him and his wife Apoorva Shukla Tiwari, who in a fit of rage, allegedly strangled him, the police said in a press conference today. Mr Tiwari, 40, was drunk and couldn't defend himself as he was smothered by his wife, the police added.
On April 15, Rohit Shekhar Tiwari, his mother Ujjwala and a relative had driven back from Kathgodam in Uttarakhand, where he had gone to vote for the Lok Sabha election.
Rohit Shekhar Tiwari had been drinking with a female relative, his cousin's wife, their way back from Uttarakhand to Delhi. Apoorva Shukla Tiwari reportedly made a video call to her husband and saw him drinking with the woman.
When he got back, the couple had a huge fight over the issue, following which Rohit Shekhar Tiwari went to his room on the first floor of their house. When he had slept, his wife allegedly smothered him with a pillow.
"From Day 1, Rohit Shekhar Tiwari and Apoorva Shukla Tiwari, they have had a turbulent marriage. Theirs was an unhappy marriage. All her hopes were belied. And in the night, they had a fight over drinking with a relative. The fight took a violent turn and she pounced on him and strangulated him" Additional Commissioner of Police Rajiv Ranjan said in a press conference.
Rohit Shekhar Tiwari's mother Ujjwala Sharma has said that Apoorva's family had an eye on their property. She said: "Apoorva had an affair with someone before getting married to Shekhar. Her family is money-minded and has always had an eye on our property. They wanted to grab the Defence Colony property from my sons Shekhar and Sidharth. Our house is close to the Supreme Court where Apoorva went for practice."
"I will disclose everything after the condolence meeting. Rajeev, who is our relative and had been the OSD (Officer on Special Duty) to my husband ND Tiwari, has been in our service for the last 40 years. Apoorva used to hate Rajeev's wife because Sidharth wanted to give a share of his property to Rajeev's son," she added.
Rohit Shekhar Tiwari was found unconscious in his room on April 16. He was rushed to a hospital where he was announced brought dead. His postmortem report, however, revealed that he was murdered.
Rohit Shekhar had fought a six-year-long battle in court to prove that he was the son of ND Tiwari, a veteran Congress leader who was chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.