Eight days after Rohit Shekhar Tiwari was declared dead at a city hospital, his wife Apoorva Shukla on Wednesday allegedly confessed to killing him , the police said.
It was revealed that she wanted a servant to discover the body and did not want his mother Ujjwala to be present at that time.
An investigator said on April 16, after allegedly strangulating and smothering her husband in the small hours, Ms. Shukla made sure nobody in the house suspected her. “Her plan was to ensure that someone else discovers the body and informs her. After that, the accused planned to take him to a government hospital where she thought she can hush up the matter,” said the officer.
Unlike usual, she came out of her room around 10.30 a.m., said sources. House help Golu had peeped inside Rohit’s room around 9 a.m. but on seeing the lights off and knowing he suffers from insomnia, he did not wake him up, they added.
At around 2 p.m., Ms. Ujjwala came to the Defence Colony residence from her Tilak Lane house, which threw Ms. Shukla off the plan, said investigators.
“Her [Ms. Shukla] plan was to ask Golu to check on Rohit and subsequently find his body early afternoon but Ms. Ujjwala came and she did not want that the body to be discovered in front of her mother-in-law,” the officer said.
Ms. Ujjwala asked the accused about Mr. Rohit but she dodged the question. “She did not share a good relationship with his mother. However, on the day of the incident, when the mother asked a few times to bring Rohit, she said, ‘let us talk… we hardly talk’, which was unusual,” the officer said. When Ms. Ujjwala came to the house, Golu had gone out for some work, said sources. After this, Ms. Ujjwala left for her doctor’s appointment in Max Hospital in Saket around 3.15 p.m. Meanwhile, Ms. Shukla was eagerly waiting for Golu as she wanted him to discover the body, said sources, adding, “As soon as he came home at 3.30 p.m., she asked him to check on Rohit after which he found him ‘unconscious’ and bleeding from the nose.”
Ms. Shukla also wanted to take the body to a government hospital and had already put him in her car but by then ambulance from Max Hospital had reached their residence, said sources.
“Ms. Shukla thought she will go to a government hospital and tell them about his medical history, including heart condition, bypass surgeries, brain stroke and there were no visible injuries so she would be able to pass it as natural death,” the officer claimed.
Forensic evidence
The police claim to have circumstantial and forensic evidence in the case while some reports are awaited.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Rajiv Ranjan said, “We have sufficient evidence to prove the prosecution case”.
