On January 7, 2020, Shweta Tiwari and her 21-month-old son, Shreyam Tiwari, were murdered in Flat 103, Unique Tower, Sector 26, Pratap Nagar, Jaipur, Rajasthan. The perpetrator, Saurav Jaat, entered the apartment and attacked Shweta with a ginger-crushing rod (musli) and a knife, cutting her throat while she was sitting on the sofa. He then killed the sleeping toddler with the rod, wrapped his body in a sheet, and dumped it near a boundary wall in a vacant plot behind the complex. While at his office at Indian Oil Corporation, Shweta's husband, Rohit Tiwari, pretended to be unaware of the crime and later staged a kidnapping scenario, receiving ransom messages demanding ₹30 lakh sent from Shweta's missing phone. Investigation revealed that most building CCTV cameras were non-functional, but footage from a neighbor's camera captured Saurav carrying the child's body wrapped in a sheet. Police tracked Saurav via cell tower data and discovered Shweta's phone hidden behind an aquarium at his home. Upon arrest, Saurav confessed that Rohit was the mastermind who hired him for ₹10,000 as part of a mutual spousal murder agreement. Rohit confessed to waiting seven years after their January 2011 marriage to avoid dowry harassment charges before arranging the murder, and admitted to killing his son because he resented him as an IVF child. Both suspects were arrested and charged, though Rohit was later released on bail while legal proceedings remained ongoing.
Country: India
State/Province: Rajasthan, India
City/Region: Jaipur
Incident Type: Domestic Violence Homicide
Relationship Status: Married
Relationship Duration: Approximately 9 years (marriage)
Incident Date: Jan. 7, 2020
Relationship Origins:
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How the relationship or connection began.
Approximately 9 years (marriage)
Important relationship phases recorded for this case.
Reported red flags or early concern points.
Contributing factors and possible motives from the available sources.
2020-01-07
Recorded relationship or case outcome.
English labels are shown first. Original-language titles are preserved for source verification.
Domestic Violence
The relationship was characterized by chronic interpersonal conflict from its inception in January 2011, leading to a temporary one-year separation before moving together to Udaipur and then Jaipur. The offender strategically delayed lethal action for seven years to avoid prosecution under India's anti-dowry harassment laws. Escalation materialized when the offender conspired with a childhood friend to contract the murder of his wife and IVF-conceived toddler to start a new life without financial or legal liabilities.
Pratap Nagar police initially treated the case as a murder-kidnapping after discovering Shweta Tiwari's body and receiving ransom messages on Rohit's phone from Shweta's stolen device. Investigation shifted after postmortem reports established that mother and child died simultaneously. Recovery of working CCTV footage from a neighbor's flat captured Saurav Jaat leaving with a wrapped bundle. Cell tower tracking and discovery of the victim's phone behind an aquarium led to Saurav's arrest and confession, implicating Rohit. Both were arrested; as reported, Rohit later received court bail while trial proceedings remain pending.
Initial investigative effort was misdirected by three ransom messages demanding ₹30 lakh sent from the victim's stolen phone, causing police to prioritize a live search for a kidnapped child. CCTV malfunctions across most of the building complex further hindered early identification until a neighbor's balcony camera provided usable footage.
Saurav Jaat entered Flat 103 under the guise of a social visit, retrieved a heavy ginger-crushing rod and knife from the kitchen, and fatally struck and slit the throat of Shweta Tiwari. He then bludgeoned 21-month-old Shreyam in his bed, wrapped the body in a bedsheet, and threw it over a boundary wall into a vacant plot behind the tower. While Rohit maintained an alibi at his Indian Oil Corporation office, Saurav sent extortion texts from the victim's phone. Forensic timing from postmortem analyses debunked the kidnapping timeline, and neighbor CCTV footage identified Saurav, leading to phone recovery and confessions.
The case demonstrates severe risk indicators including long-standing spousal hostility, written disclosures of harassment sent to family members, an explicit threat sent to a brother-in-law two days prior to the attack, and profound cognitive detachment from the child. The offender utilized detailed pre-planning, contract-killing mechanisms, workplace alibis, and misdirection tactics such as fake ransom demands.
Staged crime scenes and extortion messages can temporarily divert homicide investigations. High-conflict domestic histories accompanied by explicit warning messages to relatives serve as critical behavioral indicators. Forensic time-of-death evaluation is vital in disproving staged kidnapping narratives.
Shweta Tiwari repeatedly documented spousal harassment in letters to her parents during their 2011–2015 separation, and Rohit Tiwari sent a text to his brother-in-law on January 5, 2020, warning that he was fed up and that something bad was about to happen.
Working CCTV footage from a neighboring flat whose owners were out of town recorded Saurav Jaat carrying a wrapped bundle, while audio from another nearby camera captured the screams at the precise time of death.
Key evidence included postmortem time-of-death alignment, neighbor CCTV recordings, cell tower overlapping locations between Saurav and the victim's phone, the victim's phone hidden behind an aquarium, matching footwear, and recorded extortion messages.
The house maid reported arriving at the flat, noticing unusual silence, discovering blood trails and her mistress's body in the bedroom, and running outside screaming to alert neighbors.
Initial kidnapping assumptions were disproved when postmortem reports proved simultaneous deaths, leading to the child's body being found in a nearby vacant plot and uncovering the husband's murder contract.
The primary unresolved issue noted in the report is the legal status of the case, as Rohit Tiwari reportedly obtained bail and remains free while court consideration continues.