Apoorva, the lawyer wife of Rohit Shekhar Tiwari who has been arrested for allegedly killing him, has showed confusing behaviour, a police officer said on Thursday, 25 April, adding she regrets her action sometimes and appears cold about the incident other times, reported PTI.
Rohit Shekhar Tiwari was the son of former UP and Uttarakhand CM ND Tiwari.
The Delhi Police on Wednesday, 24 April had arrested Apoorva, a lawyer practising in the Supreme Court, on charges of his murder on the intervening night of 15 and 16 April, citing a "turbulent and unhappy" marriage as the motive.
Apoorva was later sent to a two-day police custody by Delhi’s Saket Court.
Rajeev Rajan, additional commissioner (crime), said the couple apparently did not have a happy marriage and had frequent fights.
“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).
Pointing out that Apoorva has confessed, Ranjan said that considering the facts and circumstances, it seemed 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.
Ranjan had earlier told news agency IANS that Apoorva had destroyed the evidence related to the crime and the whole process happened within one-and-a-half hours.
Showing Confusing Behaviour
During four days of intense interrogation, Apoorva did not break down once but now she appears to be regretting smothering Tiwari on the night of 15-16 April. She also claimed that Tiwari's mother, Ujjwala, often interfered between them and this affected the couple's relationship, the officer said.
On the night Tiwari was killed, he and Apoorva were in their room at the Defence Colony residence when they had a fight over Tiwari’s proximity with his sister-in-law.
"She told him she did not like his proximity with his sister-in-law and that he used to drink with her. He teased her saying that when he was returning from Uttarkhand, he and his sister-in-law drank alcohol from the same glass. This angered Apoorva. She held on to his neck and when he tried to raise an alarm, she choked him with a pillow," the officer said.
Police sources, meanwhile, claimed a letter, written by the District Bar Association of Indore on 22 April, was received by the Crime Branch. It sought a fair probe in the case and urged the police department to ensure that Apoorva is not implicated, they said.
But the family has claimed the letter was written at the behest of Apoorva’s father, who is a well-known lawyer in Indore and served at a top post in the bar association, the sources said.
Police have sought call details of the landline number at Tiwari's Defence Colony residence. They have also taken Apoorva's nail samples to ascertain if Tiwari's skin was stuck in them during the fight, or to see the possibility of any other DNA present there.
But, the sources said, there may not be any clue as the samples were taken a few days after the killing.
On Wednesday, Apoorva was taken to the Defence Colony residence where police recreated the crime scene. Tiwari's family members suspect he was allegedly drugged by Apoorva before being killed. Only the viscera report will confirm if he was drugged, the officer said.
The police officer, however, ruled out any possibility of psychological examination of Apoorva.
Discrepancies Were Found in Her Statements
Apoorva 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 16 April, a servant had found Rohit bleeding from the nose.
According to the postmortem report, the death occurred within two hours of his last meal around 11 pm.
(With inputs from IANS and PTI)
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