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Rohit my son, admits ND Tiwari
R Sedhuraman
Legal Correspondent

Congress veteran ND Tiwari with son Rohit Shekhar (R) and and his mother Ujjwala Sharma in New Delhi. Tribune photo

New Delhi, March 3
After years of dithering, Uttarakhand’s former Chief Minister ND Tiwari today finally acknowledged that 35-year-old Rohit Shekhar is his son. “I admit he is my biological son. I think that puts the matter to rest,” Tiwari said.

The admission has possibly ended years of litigation arising from Rohit’s paternity suit filed in the Delhi High Court in 2007 seeking a declaration that he is the biological son of the octogenarian Congress leader. Rohit claimed he was born out of a relation Tiwari had with Ujjawala Sharma.

Rohit, however, refused to admit that it was a happy ending. “It is not all over. I will wait for adjudication by the Delhi HC. The next hearing in the HC is slated for April 21,” he told The Tribune. He acknowledged that Tiwari had “taken a huge step.” “I had not anticipated this. This has come as a shock,” he said.

Asked whether he was happy, Rohit said he was not. “I am normal, detached.” To a query whether he was still not trusting Tiwari and anticipated any foul play, he said: “Let me see what he does. The scars can’t heal in a day. This can happen only over a period of time.”

Rohit said Tiwari had sought to explain the delay in accepting him as the son by stating that “relatives were blackmailing him.”