She killed him for political ambition: Rohit Tiwari’s mom

NEW DELHI: Ujjwala Singh, mother of Rohit Shekhar Tiwari, has opened up about her son’s doomed marriage with Apoorva Shukla. A day after Shukla was arrested for killing her 40-year-old husband, Singh regretted that her son had decided to marry a woman whose outlook on life and her attitude did not match his.Singh, 80, told TOI that she had fixed Tiwari’s marriage with a Bengaluru-based woman, but Shukla had insisted on marrying him, despite Tiwari having distanced himself from her when he discerned her political ambitions.“I warned Rohit about her after she first visited us,” Singh said. “She asked us whether she could shift into a room in our house. After much reluctance, Rohit eventually agreed, and Apoorva took our kindness as a sign of weakness.”Singh disclosed that Shukla was given a room adjacent to Tiwari’s. “His cousin Rajeev and his wife used the room, but he vacated it when I fell sick and requested him to shift with me to our Tilak Lane house,” the octogenarian said.The mother added, “Rohit would meet her sometimes and made it clear to her they were friends. One day he came back and asked me to look for a bride for him. We decided on a girl and were to meet her parents when Apoorva appeared and claimed she had been visiting temples praying for Rohit’s health. She asked us for a chance to prove her loyalty, so we cancelled the match and got him married to Apoorva,” she said.According to Singh, all hell broke loose after the wedding when Shukla learnt that her mother-in-law had left a portion of her property to the cousin. “She insisted that I transfer everything to Rohit. However, how could I ignore Rajeev who had served Tiwariji (her husband N D Tiwari) for 40 years?” Singh said.The grieving mother also said that Shukla suspected her husband of having an affair with a woman. “But actually she had known him since he was a boy and treated him like a younger brother,” Singh said, and added, “I still cannot believe she went to the extent of murdering her husband to achieve her career and political objectives. If she had a problem with us she could have asked for a divorce.”TOI reached out to Shukla’s parents in Indore for their version of events, but they refused any comment.