Vivek Tiwari's postmortem report shows Apple exec was shot in face at point-blank range; bullet wound cause of death

The postmortem report of Vivek Tiwari, the Apple sales executive from Lucknow who fired at by Uttar Pradesh police constable in Lucknow, revealed that the techie died of the gunshot wound and not the injuries from the subsequent car accident.

According to  ANI , the postmortem report clearly states that Tiwari’s death was caused by the bullet wound on the left side of his chin. His face was blown apart after constable Prashant Chaudhary fired at him at point blank range around 1.30 am on Saturday.

Chaudhary had claimed that he had fired at Apple executive in self-defence after the techie tried to run him over with his SUV. The police constable claimed that Tiwari had first crashed into his bike and later a pillar while trying to escape the police. However, the postmortem report would mean that it was Chaudhary’s bullet that killed Tiwari.

Apart from this, a CCTV footage that surfaced on Monday also punctured the accused policemen’s claims that he opened fire at the 38-year-old when he refused to stop the car, drove away at high speed and tried to run them over. The footage, a police official privy to the probe ordered by the government said, showed that Tiwari was driving the SUV at normal speed and halted about 500 metres from where he was fatally shot, following which the vehicle crashed into an underpass pillar.

The incident has given more teeth to the Opposition’s attack against the BJP-led government. The Yogi Adityanath government, which is already battling allegations over reported rise in the number of encounters and extra-judicial killings in Uttar Pradesh ever since he took over.

Leader of Opposition and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav said that the state government was trying to fudge facts about the killing. Yadav blamed the state government’s policy of what he said were “staged police encounters” and said that rather than being repentant, many BJP ministers in the state were coming across as indifferent and casual.

Mayawati, chief of Bahujan Samaj Party demanded a high-level inquiry while claiming that Tiwari’s killing was the latest example of how the upper caste people were “also facing harassment” in the BJP government.

Meanwhile, the family of the victim was promised help by Adityanath.  The aggrieved family members met Adityanath on Monday and said that they “have faith” in the state government.

“I have said earlier that I have faith in the state government. This faith has been strengthened after meeting the chief minister. I have lost capacity to take a stand after the unfortunate incident, which should not have happened. It has shaken me. After meeting the chief minister, I have gained confidence that I will be able to fulfil the responsibilities my husband left to me,” said Kalpana Tiwari, the wife of the killed Apple executive.

“All my demands have been met. I wanted strict action against the guilty, a job, accommodation, expenses for education of my daughters and my mother-in-law. The chief minister acceded to all my demands,” she told reporters.

Tiwari’s wife Kalpana, a postgraduate, has been promised a job at Lucknow Municipal Corporation, while Adityanath has already announced Rs 25 lakh as financial assistance to the family. Fixed deposits of Rs 5 lakh each will also be given to the two daughters, and another Rs five lakh has been announced for Tiwari’s mother.

With inputs from agencies