Twisha Sharma ‘dowry’ death case: Husband Samarth Singh sent to police custody; AIIMS Delhi team to conduct 2nd autopsy

A court in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, remanded Samarth Singh, the husband of Twisha Sharma and an accused in her alleged dowry death case, to a seven-day police custody on Saturday. Singh was arrested in Jabalpur on Friday. Police took Singh's custody from the Jabalpur district court premises on Friday, where he had gone to surrender after withdrawing his anticipatory bail plea from the Madhya Pradesh High Court. Also Read | Twisha Sharma death case: Madhya Pradesh govt gives consent for CBI probe He was brought to Bhopal from Jabalpur in the early hours of Saturday and taken to Katara Hills police station, sources told news agency PTI. Following the arrest, police produced him before Judicial Magistrate First Class Anudita Gupta in Bhopal, news agency PTI reported. The court granted the police seven days' custody of the accused for interrogation.

The counsel for Singh also submitted the accused's passport to the court. Samarth Singh is the son of former judge and Bhopal Consumer Court chairperson Giribala Singh. A lawyer by profession, Singh had been evading arrest since an FIR was registered against him and his mother following Twisha Sharma's death on May 12. A reward of ₹30,000 was declared on information leading to his arrest. Twisha Sharma, 33, was found hanging at her matrimonial home in Bhopal's Katara Hills area. Her family accused her husband and mother-in-law of dowry harassment and abetment to suicide. 'That wasn't a surrender; it was a strategy...' Following the police custody of Samarth Singh, members of the victim's extended family on Saturday questioned the circumstances surrounding his surrender and alleged that it was a calculated strategy rather than a voluntary move.

Speaking to ANI, Twisha Sharma's cousin Swati raised concerns over Singh's conduct after the High Court directed him to surrender before the trial court. Questioning why Singh approached the high court instead of surrendering directly before the trial court or police, she alleged that he was ultimately traced through media presence and not through a direct surrender process. "That wasn't a surrender, in my opinion; I think it was a strategy. When the high court ordered him to surrender before the trial court, why did he go to the high court instead? Even at the high court, the police didn't catch him initially, and he didn't surrender directly to them. He was caught there after being traced through the media," she said. AIIMS Delhi team to fly to Bhopal for second autopsy A four-member team of doctors from AIIMS Delhi was slated to fly to Bhopal in the evening to conduct a second autopsy of Twisha Sharma following the Madhya Pradesh High Court's order.

The Madhya Pradesh High Court ordered on Friday a second autopsy for Twisha by a specialised team from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, in response to a petition filed by her parents. Accordingly, AIIMS Delhi constituted a medical board comprising four senior doctors to conduct a second autopsy. Chief of Forensic Medicine at AIIMS Delhi, Dr Sudhir Gupta, who set up the board, said it would fly to Bhopal by a state-chartered plane at 6 pm.