Paternity suit: Tiwari gives sample
Left with no option but to obey the Supreme Court order, veteran Congress leader N.D. Tiwari on Tuesday gave his blood sample for DNA test following a paternity suit of a man claiming to be his biological son.
Mr Tiwari, 86, who has for months refused to give his blood sample despite directions from courts on a paternity suit by 32-year-old Rohit Shekhar, complied on Tuesday, the deadline set by the top court for it.
Mr Shekhar and his mother Ujjawala Sharma were also present when the blood sample was taken at Mr Tiwari’s residence in the Forest Research Institute campus here. The blood sample, which took more than four hours to collect and seal, was later handed over to joint registrar of Delhi high court R. Gopalan, who will submit it before the court for DNA profiling. “Tiwariji fully cooperated with the officials when he gave the blood sample,” said Dr B.C. Pathak, chief medical superintendent of Government Doon hospital, who was part of the team that collected the sample.
Mr Gopalan, Dehra Dun district judge Raj Krishna and Mr Tiwari’s lawyers were also present.
On coming out of Mr Tiwari’s residence, Mr Shekhar expressed hope that he would get justice, now that the Congress leader has given his blood sample. “I am hopeful that I would now get justice,” said Mr Shekhar.
The Supreme Court had on May 24 rejected Mr Tiwari’s plea that he was too old to give his blood sample. “It does not mean that blood is not running in his body,” the bench had said. “Can the order of the court be flouted only because of the stature of a person?” a bench comprising Justices Deepak Verma and S.J. Mukhopadhaya had said.
The paternity suit was filed by Mr Shekhar in 2008 in the Delhi high court seeking its direction to declare the Congress leader as his biological father.
Mr Tiwari had been directed to make himself available at his home in Dehra Dun on Tuesday before the district judge and a local civil surgeon to be accompanied by a pathologist. The bench, which made it clear that Mr Tiwari cannot escape from giving his blood sample, however, had agreed to the plea of his counsel Gopal Subramanium that some protection should be granted for maintaining confidentiality of the test.
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