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Rohit Shekhar Tiwari, son of former Uttarakhand chief minister ND Tiwari, died of "asphyxia" as he was strangulated and smothered, his autopsy report revealed.
The autopsy was conducted by a medical board comprising five senior doctors of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
"The medical board unanimously concluded that the cause of death in this case is asphyxia as a result of strangulation and smothering. It is a sudden unnatural death, placed in the category of homicide," the head of the AIIMS' forensic department, Dr Sudhir Gupta, said.
Crime Branch officers visited Rohit's residence on Friday and questioned his family members and domestic helps, police said, adding that a team of forensic experts also visited the house.
The officers are going through footage from CCTV cameras installed in and around the house to find leads, ascertain the sequence of events and track people who entered the house, they said.
A crime branch officer told IANS that a case of murder has been registered.
"All possible angles, including a property dispute between Rohit Shekhar Tiwari and his brother Sidharth, are being investigated. It was found that the family has property worth crores of rupees in Uttrakhand and Delhi," said the officer.
DCP (South) Vijay Kumar had said that Rohit, a resident of Defence Colony in south Delhi, was brought to the hospital around 5 pm on Tuesday in an ambulance, where doctors declared him dead.
Rohit was the biological son of ND Tiwari and Ujjwala Tiwari, whom the former CM married in 2014.
Rohit did not share a cordial relationship with his wife and was apparently upset over his political career not taking off, according to his mother.
She also said Shekhar had recently visited the place where his father, former Union minister ND Tiwari, was cremated.
She said Shekhar (40) and his wife did not share a cordial relationship and "they had issues since day one of their marriage".
Shekhar and his mother went to Haldwani to cast their vote on 11 April. They were supposed to return to Delhi on 12 April, but changed their plan after Shekhar said he "wanted to meet his people".
"He said to me, 'Why's my (political) career not taking off? Even those who don't have experience and are not capable enough are getting tickets. I will seek blessings of the baba so that I can take my father's political legacy forward'," she said.
Earlier, speaking right after Rohit’s death, Ujjwala had said, “His death is natural. I have no suspicion but I will reveal later what circumstances led to his death.”
His mother was also admitted to the same hospital where she received a call from their home about her son being "unwell and bleeding from nose", he said.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat expressed "deep sorrow" at the untimely death of Rohit Tiwari.
He prayed for "peace to the departed soul" and courage and strength to the bereaved family members to bear the loss.
Rohit had fought a court battle with his father, who breathed his last at the age of 93 on 18 October last year, to prove that he was his son.
Rohit Tiwari had joined the BJP ahead of the 2017 Uttarakhand Assembly polls and recently indicated he could join the Congress.
(With inputs from ANI, PTI)
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