Around 6 p.m. on May 28, a team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) left the residence of retired Bhopal district judge Giribala Singh with her. They had arrested her following more than six hours of investigation and questioning in connection with her daughter-in-law Twisha Sharma’s dowry harassment and death case. Dozens of reporters and camerapeople, who had turned the locality into a media centre since that morning, swarmed around the CBI’s cars. The crew moved with the cars, from the house where Twisha, the 33-year-old former model, had been found dead on the night of May 12, to the police station. Giribala Singh’s son and Twisha’s husband, Samarth Singh was already in the CBI custody. 

The arrest came a day after the Madhya Pradesh High Court quashed the anticipatory bail granted to Giribala Singh by a local Bhopal court on May 15, just hours after the local police registered an FIR in the case amid allegations from Twisha’s family of bias and lack of cooperation. 

Even though further investigation and trial will continue in the case, the two events mark the conclusion of 16 exhausting and painful days for Twisha’s family. During this period, Twisha’s body was kept in a mortuary for 12 days for a second autopsy to be performed, before the cremation. Through the two weeks, social media was rife with emotional breakdowns, online campaigns, and debates around the position of women in an Indian family. 

Twisha’s body was cremated at Bhopal’s Bhadbhada Vishram Ghat on May 24, just hours after a second autopsy was conducted at AIIMS Bhopal by a four-member expert panel of the AIIMS New Delhi on her family’s demand and on the orders of the Madhya Pradesh High Court. 

Her family bid her a tearful farewell and as her brother Harshit Sharma, a Major with the Indian Army, lit the funeral pyre, Twisha’s mother Rekha Sharma collapsed on the floor. Even as relatives held her, she remained inconsolable. 

At a brief prayer gathering, Twisha’s father, Navnidhi Sharma, remembered his daughter saying that she would take care of her parents “as a mother” would. “We don’t know how we will live without her. As kids grow up, they take care of their parents. They become like parents and parents become like children. She used to take care of like a mother does her children,” he said, while expressing confidence that she will get justice. 

Twisha’s family has maintained their allegation that it was “not a suicide” and that their daughter “was murdered”.

The timeline of a tragedy

Twisha, 33, a former model and an MBA graduate, was found hanging at her marital home in Bhopal’s Katara Hills area on the night of May 12, just five months after marrying Samarth, a lawyer, on December 9, 2025. 

While her family hails from Uttar Pradesh’s Noida, Twisha had moved to Bhopal after the wedding. The couple had met through a matrimonial website in 2024 after which they got engaged in May, 2025. Earlier, she had been Miss Pune before taking up a career in marketing. 

As per her family, On May 12 Twisha and her mother were on a phone call since 9.41 p.m. with Samarth allegedly screaming at her in the background. The phone got disconnected around 10.05 p.m. and was switched off. Her mother kept trying the numbers of Samarth and Giribala for about 20 minutes. Around 10.37, Giribala allegedly answered her phone, told Twisha’s family “she is no more” and hung up. 

While her family immediately left from Noida, they alleged that Twisha’s in-laws did not take their calls properly or talk to them through the night.

Twisha was taken to AIIMS Bhopal where she was declared brought dead, prompting the doctors to alert the police around 12.05 a.m. 

Her family arrived in Bhopal on the morning of May 13, after which began an exhausting series of events starting with allegations against the local police for “working under the influence of Giribala Singh”. 

The FIR in the case was filed early in the morning of May 15, following two days of protests and arguments with the local police.

Just hours after the FIR, Giribala was granted anticipatory bail by a local Bhopal court, while a similar application by Samarth was rejected. 

Even after the FIR was lodged, the family continued to allege several lapses in the probe, such as a delay in recovering crucial evidence like the belt used as ligature from the incident spot, as well as institutional bias by the local police, especially Katara Hills police station in-charge Sunil Kumar Dubey. 

Twisha’s family and friends also launched a social media campaign seeking justice for her, which brought the national spotlight on the case and dowry-related deaths in general. 

The growing controversy and protests by her family members prompted Bhopal Police Commissioner Sanjay Kumar to form a six-member special investigation team (SIT) led by ACP Rajnish Kashyap Kaul. 

The family also raised questions on the process and report of the postmortem examination conducted at AIIMS Bhopal, including Twisha’s height being mentioned shorter than she was, as well as six antemortem injuries possibly by blunt force. The postmortem report said that the cause of death was “asphyxia due to antemortem hanging by ligature”.

The alleged irregularities prompted the family to refuse to accept Twisha’s body and demand a second independent autopsy and that the case be transferred to the CBI. 

While netizens voiced their support online, on ground Twisha’s family was joined by retired officers of the Armed Forces, particularly the Vardi Social Welfare Foundation, a Bhopal-based group of ex-servicemen. This came amid the alleged threats Twisha’s family received in Bhopal, especially from some lawyers in the court premises. 

Speaking to The Hindu, Harshit said that the accused had “an army of lawyers who behaved like goons”. “This started the day we opposed their anticipatory bail applications and some lawyers told me that they will get me ‘disappeared’. I had to approach my seniors in the Army, who then arranged security for us,” he said. 

Between May 17 and 20, the ex-servicemen rallied support for the family and got them to meet senior leaders and officials, including Chief Minister Mohan Yadav who assured them that the case would be transferred to the CBI. 

A significant breakthrough for the family’s efforts came on May 22 when the Madhya Pradesh Government recommended the case to the CBI while the High Court in Jabalpur accepted the family’s demand for a second autopsy, which was earlier rejected by the local Bhopal court. The High Court ordered that the autopsy be conducted by an expert team of AIIMS New Delhi. 

Later, the High Court took note of the family and the CBI’s claims that Giribala’s sister, Rajbala Singh Bhadoriya, who is a doctor in the city and another doctor, both in private practice, were present in the postmortem room during the examination. 

CCTV footage of the house where Twisha died also surfaced online showing Twisha going upstairs and sometime later Samarth appearing to give her CPR on the stairs. The footage also showed Giribala walking through the frame a couple of times and another man who helped Samarth carry Twisha downstairs. The footage, however, had timestamps from May 10 and from much earlier in the night from the time of the incident, raising doubts over its authenticity. 

The CBI later claimed in the High Court that even though the local police seized the CCTV footage from her house on May 13, Giribala still had the footage and “leaked the selective short clip of the video recording on the social media with intention of tampering with the evidence”. The Bhopal Police Commissioner, however, has ruled out any tampering with the footage itself. 

On May 22, Samarth, who had been absconding, was also taken into police custody. While the police continued to claim that they were searching for him, he suddenly arrived at a local court in Jabalpur to surrender. The judge, however, refused to accept his surrender saying that the matter concerned Bhopal courts. 

Even though he donned a scarf, sunglasses, and a cap, some lawyers representing Twisha’s family spotted him and held him until the local police arrived and detained him. The lawyers alleged that he tried to flee the court and that his lawyers manhandled them. He was then handed over to the Bhopal police. 

On May 24, a four-member team of AIIMS New Delhi doctors conducted the second autopsy at AIIMS Bhopal on her body which had been in a mortuary for 12 days. Her last rites were performed soon after. 

On May 25, the Supreme Court also heard a suo motu case in the matter saying it had stepped in with awareness of a “narrative” created that the judiciary was involved in denying her family a fair probe. The SC, however, asked both the victim’s and the accused’s sides to refrain from making statements before the media. The same day, a CBI team from New Delhi arrived in Bhopal and took over the case from the SIT. 

The CBI re-lodged the FIR in the case under Sections 80(2), 85 and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, and Sections 3 and 4 of Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961. 

Meanwhile, Twisha’s father and the State Government had challenged Giribala’s anticipatory bail before the High Court, which was quashed on May 27, leading to her arrest on May 28.

The High Court quashed the local court’s order while noting that various injuries on the victim’s body, including one on her head, were antemortem, suffered before death. It also said that the trial court did not consider several facts while allowing the anticipatory bail and noted that Giribala was “not cooperating” with the investigation. 

However, Advocate Anurag Shrivastava, representing Twisha’s family, has raised suspicions about destruction of evidence and implanting contraband substances in the victim’s belongings, which Giribala accused Twisha of being addicted to, as the accused mother-in-law lived in the house for over 10 days. He questioned the anticipatory bail granted to her without the condition of sealing the house.

One of the most serious allegations regarding institutional bias made by Twisha’s family was that Giribala spoke to more than 40 highly influential people between the night of May 12 and the day of May 13. The family released a list of phone numbers belonging to senior IPS, IAS, and judicial officers and the then investigating officer Dubey along with CCTV camera technicians and a local salon where Twisha had gone the day she died. They claimed the list was obtained from the call detail records (CDR) submitted by Giribala in her anticipatory bail application and the names were found using the caller ID apps.

Defamation and harassment allegations 

Since her death, Twisha’s family has made several allegations against the mother-son duo, ranging from physical and mental abuse, dowry demands and taunts, to shaming her over her previous relationships and career in the modelling and acting fields.

The family, in the FIR, alleged that Giribala had demanded dowry at the time of the wedding and that ₹2 lakh were paid then, but she and her son continued to taunt Twisha over dowry while saying that the wedding expenditure did not “match their standards”. Navnidhi, her father, also said that Twisha, who had quit her job in a corporate company in Delhi after moving to Bhopal, was not given money for personal expenses by her in-laws and that he used to send her money online. He also alleged that the in-laws had been asking Twisha to transfer her investments worth about ₹20 lakh to their names. 

The family has also charged that Twisha’s husband and mother-in-law forced her to terminate her one-month-old pregnancy in April while suspecting that it was not Samarth’s child. Giribala, however, has denied the charges saying that Twisha had aborted the child willingly, as she did not want to have a child. 

She also denied the charges of dowry while claiming that she and Samarth had given about ₹8 lakh to Twisha in five months of the marriage. 

The nature of the case became much more controversial mainly by two sets of events — a series of press conferences and media statements by Giribala, and a purported audio conversation between her and Harshit from a few weeks before her death. 

Terming her alleged suicide as “irresponsible conduct” and defending her son, Giribala told the media, “Girls take this step and hang themselves. Irresponsible conduct. Boys aren’t able to do that, so they are treated as criminals.” Some of Giribala’s claims also included lack of supposed family values like not watering plants, not worshiping, and dressing in modern clothes. 

Twisha’s family also held a press conference with various ex-servicemen accusing Giribala of “public vilification and character assassination” of their deceased daughter who cannot defend herself.

In the purported leaked audio clip, Harshit and Giribala could be heard engaged in an intense conversation over Samarth allegedly calling her a prostitute and the mother-in-law questioning if she had intimate relationships before marriage for “monetary benefits or to climb the social ladder”. Other family members from both sides could also be heard in the clip. 

While Harshit is heard objecting to her statement while asking how she could “ask this” to her own daughter-in-law, Giribala is heard saying that it was “her right” to question Twisha and that “promiscuity can be a habit” which is not allowed in her household.

As the exchange gets heated, Giribala is heard asking Harshit in an angry tone, “Are you trying to cross questioning me? Is this not my right to ask my daughter-in-law?”

Talking about the clip, Harshit said, “I was challenging them then and there. But she is a judge and is not in the habit of being challenged.” 

The two events drew massive backlash online against Giribala, prompting her to stop her media interactions within days. 

Back-breaking system

Founder of Verdi foundation, Major General (Retd.) Shyam Shrivastava, who led the ex-servicemen for Twisha’s family points to a “back breaking system” that they have had to deal with while seeking a fair probe in the case. 

He says that Twisha’s family was not getting any support from the authorities unless pressure was built through communications and meetings with senior leaders and officials. 

“People talk big about giving respect to us and hold events in the honour of soldiers. But what is the point if their families are not safe and do not get justice and nobody hears them? The respect does not get us through daily lives,” Shrivastava says. The veteran also says that it seemed “several highly influential people” are with the accused. 

He admits that through the campaign, they were able to muster support for the family and get their demands like a CBI probe and a second autopsy addressed. 

“We had some resources and a voice, and we could raise our concerns with the government. Harshit and his family were very brave and did not lose hope. But imagine a common citizen in this situation. This kind of system will break their back and leave them hopeless,” he adds.

The distress signals and lessons in adjustment

Just days after Twisha’s death, her friends and family releases several chat screenshots of their conversations with her that went viral on social media. The messages talked about the alleged abuse she was facing and advice of not rushing into a marriage for the sake of it. One of them read, “My life is a living hell.”

Some messages with her mother read, “Samarth is asking whose child was it that you aborted. Mummy, I will go mad here. I am not able to do all this now.”

“He [Samarth] wants to get [my] father to apologise by rubbing his nose [a humiliating practice],” she said in a message, to which her mother Rekha replies that the father will apologise. “Shall I and your father come?” Rekha asked. 

The messages shifted the conversation to the age-old conditioning of Indian women to adjust and save their marriages to the last extent. It also started a debate about parents not encouraging their daughters to take a decisive step to walk out of a bad marriage due to societal pressure. 

The debate was further fuelled by several other recent cases of alleged dowry related deaths across India. In Uttar Pradesh’s Greater Noida, Deepika Nagar, 24, was found dead at her marital home on May 17, within two years of marriage, with her family alleging that she used to be assaulted for dowry and was murdered. They alleged that her in-laws had made additional dowry demands, including about ₹50 lakh and an SUV. The police have arrested her husband Hrithik Nagar and father-in-law Manoj Nagar in a dowry death case. 

In Rajasthan’s Jaipur, Anu Meena, 36, allegedly ended her life on April 7 after years of domestic violence, physical and mental abuse by her husband Gautam Meena, a PWD engineer, with a CCTV footage of one such assault being submitted to the police by her brother. The couple’s two children also reportedly told the police that their mother was frequently subjected to physical assault and abuse. 

Senior Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and former Rajya Sabha member Priyanka Chaturvedi addressed these topics in a recently-released video, saying how women were socially conditioned not to walk out of a marriage. 

“People ask if a woman was so educated, why did she not take a stand? Why did she not leave the house or get a divorce? This is because a huge question from our society stands in her way — ‘What will people say?’ When a daughter calls her parents and cries and says that these people are hitting me, most parents respond saying, ‘Beta, thoda adjust kar lo [Child, adjust a little]. It’s a new marriage and things will get better eventually. We will lose our image in society’,” she said, adding that people forget to save their daughters while trying to “protect fake social standing”.

During the SC hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta famously remarked, “It is better to have a divorced daughter than a dead daughter.”

mehul.malpani@thehindu.co.in