New Delhi:
A Delhi court on Wednesday sent Rohit Shekhar Tiwari's wife Apoorva to two-day police custody. Earlier today, Apoorva was arrested on charges of Rohit's murder, citing a "turbulent and unhappy" marriage as the motive.
The judge also directed that the accused will be medically examined as per rules and allowed her lawyer to be present with her during interrogation and serve a copy of FIR.
The police told the court that they want to find out more clues related to this case and ruled out the possibility of any other suspect.
The lawyer appearing for Shukla opposed the plea for custody saying that she has cooperated throughout the investigation.
Rohit Shekhar, the son of the late veteran politician N D Tiwari, was smothered to death on the intervening night of April 15 and 16, an autopsy report said.
"On the night of the incident, the couple had a fight over a relative. Rohit had been drinking all the way from Uttarakhand to Delhi and was not in a condition to resist. During the fight she pounced on him and smothered him," Rajeev Ranjan, additional commissioner (Crime), told reporters.
The officer said the couple apparently did not have a happy marriage and had frequent fights.
"She has confessed. As of now, from the fact and circumstances, it seems the killing was not planned. The background was there that they had a turbulent marriage and Rohit Shekhar and his family were thinking of separation. After interrogation, it was found that Apoorva Shukla Tiwari and Rohit had a turbulent marriage. All her hopes with the marriage were belied," Ranjan said.
Apoorva, a lawyer practising in the Supreme Court, was being questioned in connection with the killing since last Sunday.
Discrepancies were found in her statements which led police to suspect her involvement, the officer added.
Rohit's mother Ujjwala on Sunday had alleged that Apoorva and her family were money-minded and wanted to acquire the family property. She had earlier said the couple had started having fights right from the first day of marriage.
On April 16, a servant found Rohit was bleeding from the nose.
According to the postmortem report, the death occurred within two hours of his last meal around 11 pm.
The family's domestic help, Bhola, Rohit's cousin Pappu and Apoorva were in the house when Rohit was found dead. His mother Ujjwala Tiwari, who was admitted to Max hospital, received a call from her house about her son being "unwell and bleeding from the nose". Bhola said that Rohit often slept late into the day and there was nothing uncommon about that.
The family returned from Dehradun on April 15 after casting their vote. Rohit and Apoorva were in one car, while Ujjwala travelled in another car. The family went to their rooms around 11.30 pm. However, Rohit’s phone call details showed that he had made calls to his journalist friend and his sister-in-law Kumkum between 2 am to 4:14 am on the morning of April 16. But none received his call. According to the post-mortem examination report, he died an ‘unnatural death’ due to “asphyxia” as he was strangulated and smothered to death.
