"Minister, officials asked my mother to keep silent"

Apple executive's daughter claims officials got angry, when her mother insisted on meeting Adityanath

The minor daughter of Apple executive Vivek Tiwari accused a senior Uttar Pradesh minister and other officials of asking her mother to ''keep silent'' and ''drop'' her demands for compensation and a government job.

Tiwari was shot dead by a cop on Saturday morning.

''Instead of ensuring punishment to the guilty cops and showing their sympathy, the minister (Ashutosh Tandon) and other senior district officials asked my mother to keep silent,'' Priyanshi, Tiwari's daughter and a Class VII student, told reporters.

She said that the officials got angry, when her mother insisted on meeting Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to demand a compensation of Rs one crore and a government job.

The family refused to cremate Tiwari's body until they received an assurance from the government over their demands.

''They said that the demands cannot be met,'' Priyanshi said.

A large number of people later took out a candle light procession in the state capital to register their protest against the killing.

Though the state government was pushed on the back foot following the killing of the executive, Uttar Pradesh minister Dharam Pal Singh virtually justified the same by saying that the state police only killed criminals and not innocent civilians.

While speaking to reporters, state police chief O P Singh admitted that the policeman had used excessive force and that it amounted to murder.