india

Updated: Apr 20, 2019 04:16 IST

About 72 hours after the 39-year-old son of a late politician was believed to have died of a heart attack at his south Delhi residence, the police on Thursday night registered a case of murder against ‘unknown persons’.

On Friday, the Delhi police said Rohit Shekhar Tiwari, son of three-time former Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Narayan Dutt Tiwari, was murdered.

The autopsy report revealed that Shekhar was smothered with a pillow and had bruises on one hand.

The probe has now been transferred from the local police to the crime branch.

Shekhar, 39, a Defence Colony resident, was declared brought dead at the Max Super Speciality Hospital in Saket April 16 (Tuesday). Family members had told the police that around 4pm, a male servant had found Shekhar unconscious on his bed, after which he was taken to the hospital where he was declared brought dead.

Shekhar lived with his wife, mother and his half brother in a three-storey bungalow.

Sudhir Gupta, head of the department of forensic medicine at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), where the autopsy was conducted, said, “The post-mortem examination was conducted by a team of five senior doctors and they all came to the same conclusion that the cause of death was asphyxia (suffocation) due to smothering by a pillow. It was a clear case of sudden unnatural death of the category of homicide.”

A senior police officer, who is supervising the case, said no outsider had visited the house before Shekhar was taken to the hospital, thereby, ruling out the possibility of an outsider’s involvement. Shekhar’s wife, his half brother and three servants were at home during the day.

His mother, Ujjawala Sharma Devi, who was at the hospital, said, “My son has died a natural death. But one day, I will tell everyone about the circumstances that led to his death.”

The officer said, “We have started interrogating the servants and all others present at the house. We are looking at the case from all possible angles. We are yet to give clean chit to anyone. It appears that he was murdered in his sleep.”

Another officer said that prima facie, investigation revealed that Shekhar had returned home Monday night (April 15), after spending four days in Uttarakhand, where he had gone to caste his vote. “The CCTV footage shows him entering the house at around 11pm. He is seen holding on to the walls while entering the house as if he was inebriated. It is possible he may have been smothered in his sleep.”

A forensic team collected samples from the first-floor room where Shekhar was found unconscious and other parts of the house on Friday. Police have collected bedsheets and pillow covers from the house as well.

After news of Shekhar’s murder was reported on television and the online media, many relatives visited the Defence Colony residence. One of the relatives, who identified himself as Raman, said, “The family has gone to Haridwar. We knew that Shekhar was a heart patient for the past 10 years, but to be told that this is a case of murder is a shock.

Shekhar had fought a legal battle with the late veteran politician to prove that he was ND Tiwari’s biological son. In 2014, the paternity test was decided in Shekhar’s favour, following which the three-time UP CM had publicly accepted Shekhar as his son.