Bhopal dowry death: Court bins pre-arrest bail plea of Twisha Sharma's husband; cops to give reward for info

Bhopal: The suspicious death of 33-year-old model and actress Twisha Sharma took a critical turn on Monday as a local court rejected the anticipatory bail plea of her absconding lawyer- husband, Samarth Singh.

Following the court's decision, the Bhopal Police officially announced a cash reward of Rs 10,000 for any information leading to his arrest.

Twisha was found hanging at her marital home in Bhopal's Katara Hills area on May 12, just months after her December 2025 marriage to Samarth, whom she met on a dating app in 2024.

While a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probes the case, her family alleges she was systematically tortured and murdered over dowry.

During the tense courtroom hearing, Samarth's counsel opposed arrest by raising questions about Twisha's mental health, a statement that was strongly countered by the deceased woman's family lawyer.

He cited severe risks of evidence tampering.

After hearing arguments, Sessions Court Judge Pallavi Dwivedi turned down the pre-arrest bail application of Samarth.

While the court had previously granted anticipatory bail to Twisha's mother-in-law, retired judge Giribala Singh, who is also an accused in the case, it flatly denied similar relief to Samarth.

Reacting to the development, the woman's grief-stricken father, Navnidhi Sharma, told PTI Videos that the rejection was only a partial step toward justice and the actual victory would only come when both are punished, demanding the immediate arrest of both the husband and the retired judge.

He expressed deep fears that the influential family would use money and power to secure relief from the High Court if they were not locked up immediately.

The legal battle intensified on Monday as the contents of Samarth's bail plea surfaced on social media claiming Twisha was a psychiatric patient and drug addict whose hands and feet would tremble without access to narcotics.

To counter the dowry allegations, the retired judge attached online transaction slips ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 50,000, claiming they regularly provided for Twisha's needs.

However, Twisha's family has fiercely rubbished these allegations, presenting a different timeline of events and describing Twisha as a jolly and happening girl who drastically changed after marriage, losing 15 kilograms due to relentless mental torture.

Her cousin, Meenakshi, spoke to various media houses alleging that the harassment peaked when Twisha lost her work-from-home job and became pregnant and her husband refused to acknowledge the child.

The local investigation has already come under severe scrutiny as Misrod Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Rajneesh Kashyap, who heads the SIT, confirmed that while the preliminary AIIMS Bhopal post-mortem points to a "hanging suicide:, the family claims multiple injury marks on her body indicate murder.

In an admission of a lapse in the local probe, ACP Kashyap confirmed that the investigating officer failed to send the rope allegedly used in the hanging to AIIMS during the autopsy and said that action would be taken against the erring officer.

He made it clear that the SIT is strictly probing the case based on the dowry and abetment sections in the FIR, regardless of the husband's claims.

On Sunday, Twisha's family staged a major protest outside Chief Minister Mohan Yadav's residence in Bhopal.

Pointing out that Twisha's body has been kept in a Bhopal mortuary for five days, her father demanded that the compromised local probe be halted and a fresh, independent post-mortem be conducted at AIIMS Delhi.

Navnidhi Sharma also sought transfer of the probe outside Madhya Pradesh.

According to Twisha's relatives, she wanted to leave Bhopal and return to paternal home in Noida and remained in touch with them till around 10 pm on the day of her death.