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The prime accused in the death case of 33-year-old Twisha Sharma, her husband Samarth Singh, was taken into police custody on Friday and will be produced before a court within 24 hours, police said.
Twisha Sharma was found dead at her matrimonial residence in Bhopal on May 12. Confirming the development, Bhopal Police Commissioner Sanjay Kumar said the accused had been taken into custody and further legal proceedings were underway. "He (accused Samarth Singh) has been taken into custody, and our police team is handling this entire process. We have to produce him before the court within twenty-four hours. So we will produce him within the given time," Kumar told ANI. Meanwhile, Samarth Singh's counsel Jaideep Kaurav said his client had appeared before the Jabalpur District Court to surrender, but the court was unavailable as proceedings for the day had concluded. He said the Jabalpur Police subsequently took Singh into custody and handed him over to the Bhopal Police. "He appeared before the Jabalpur District Court to surrender himself, but the court was not available. The judge had already left as the court timing was over. After that, the Jabalpur Police took him into custody and handed him over to the Bhopal Police," Kaurav said. He further stated that since the Bhopal Police had now taken custody of Samarth Singh, he was likely to be presented before a court in Bhopal on Saturday. "The police took his custody from the court and then handed him over to the Bhopal police. The Bhopal police have taken custody, so there are chances that they will present him in the Bhopal court tomorrow," he added. While, Samarth Singh was taken into police custody, advocate Anurag Srivastava, representing the victim's side, said the accused should have surrendered before the trial court or the investigating officer in Bhopal. "The trial court is in Bhopal, and the investigating officer is also in Bhopal, he (Twisha's husband and the accused, Samarth Singh) should surrender before them...If he wants to surrender, he should do it in the trial court or in front of the investigating officer," he told reporters. Meanwhile, earlier in the day, the Madhya Pradesh High Court issued a notice to pleas filed by the father of Twisha Sharma and the State government opposing the anticipatory bail granted by a lower court to Giribala Singh, the mother-in-law of the 33-year-old woman who was found dead in her Bhopal matrimonial house on May 12. Advocate Ankur Pandey, counsel for the family of Twisha Sharma, said that the next hearing into the matter would be conducted on May 25. "In this matter, a total of four petitions were filed in the High Court. One petition was filed by the government, challenging the bail granted to Giribala Singh by the lower sessions court. Following that, the victim's father also filed a petition challenging the bail granted to Giribala Singh by the lower sessions court. Hearing both of these petitions today, the High Court has issued a notice and scheduled the next hearing for the 25th. This hearing will involve arguments regarding why her (the victim's mother-in-law's) bail should not be cancelled, focusing on the points of challenge and the legal deficiencies involved; all of this will be heard on the 25th," Ankur Pandey told ANI. Pandey informed that the High Court also permitted a second postmortem of Twisha Sharma. The advocate said that after hearing the petition of the deceased woman's family, the court directed AIIMS Delhi Director to form a committee and send a team of medical experts to AIIMS Bhopal, who would conduct a second postmortem on Twisha Sharma. The family had approached the high court two days after a lower court turned down their plea for a second autopsy. "Apart from this, a third petition was filed requesting a second post-mortem. After considering the arguments presented by the government and the petition filed by the victim's father, the court has allowed the second post-mortem. Although there was an initial discussion about transferring the body from here to Delhi, it was not deemed convenient. Therefore, with everyone's consent, directions have been issued to the Director of AIIMS, Delhi, to constitute a body [of experts] at the earliest. The expert doctors from Delhi will travel from Delhi to Bhopal and conduct the second post-mortem of Twisha Sharma's body, which is currently kept at AIIMS [Bhopal]," said Twisha Sharma's family's counsel. The advocate said that Twisha Sharma's husband, Samarth Singh, who has been evading arrest since May 12, has withdrawn his bail application from the high court, stating that he would surrender either before the investigative agency or the court. "In addition, the fourth petition filed was for Samarth Singh, the accused in this case, who has been absconding since the 12th and is Twisha Sharma's husband. His lawyer withdrew it today...He withdrew with the liberty that he would either surrender before the investigating agency or the court, and the court or investigating officer would take appropriate action accordingly," said advocate Ankur Pandey. Earlier today, the Madhya Pradesh government recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the death case of Twisha Sharma and granted consent for the agency to take over the investigation. Twisha, a resident of Noida had married Bhopal resident Samarth Singh in December 2025. Following her death on May 12, her family alleged mental torture and dowry harassment by her husband and in-laws. Police registered a case and formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the matter. (ANI)
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