BHOPAL: The investigation into the death of 33-year-old Twisha Sharma intensified on Friday after her husband Samarth Singh was taken into police custody from the Jabalpur district court premises.Anurag Srivastava, counsel for Twisha Sharma’s father Navnidhi Sharma, alleged that Samarth Singh was allegdly hiding inside Courtroom No 32, the courtroom of the District and Sessions Judge, with the doors locked from inside before his arrest.“No surrender has taken place. No hearing was going on. The last information I received was that he was inside Court No 32. I got the door opened and went inside. Under what authority was he allowed to sit in that courtroom?” Srivastava questioned.The lawyer further alleged that the incident showed “how much support” the accused was allegedly receiving from judiciary. “The lights were switched off and Samarth Singh was sitting there wearing a mask in the dark. The judge was not present, only three babu (court staff members) were there. When I asked under what authority he was being allowed to stay there, nobody had any answer. As soon as he saw me, he ran from there. His lawyer pushed me away and they locked the room again,” Srivastava claimed.Srivastava also argued that Samarth Singh had no legal right to surrender before the district court in Jabalpur. “The trial court and investigating officer are both in Bhopal. If he wanted to surrender, he should have done so before the trial court or the investigating officer there. He cannot surrender here in Jabalpur,” he said.The court premises witnessed nearly an hour of chaos on Friday evening after Samarth Singh reportedly arrived to surrender. Wearing a face mask, sunglasses and a cap.Police later took him into custody before the surrender process could conclude. A lookout notice had already been issued against him and police had announced a reward of Rs 30,000 for information leading to his arrest.Samarth Singh’s counsel Jaideep Kaurav maintained that his client had voluntarily reached the Jabalpur District Court to surrender, but the judge had already left after court hours ended.“He appeared before the Jabalpur District Court to surrender himself, but the court was unavailable as proceedings had concluded. The Jabalpur Police then took him into custody and handed him over to the Bhopal Police,” Kaurav said.The developments came hours after the Madhya Pradesh high court issued notice on petitions filed by both the state government and Twisha Sharma’s father challenging the anticipatory bail granted to Samarth’s mother, retired district judge Giribala Singh.Appearing for the victim’s family, advocate Ankur Pandey said the next hearing would take place on May 25. He also confirmed that the High Court had permitted a second postmortem of Twisha Sharma.According to Pandey, the court directed the Director of AIIMS Delhi to constitute a team of medical experts who would travel to AIIMS Bhopal and conduct the second autopsy.The Madhya Pradesh government has meanwhile recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the case and formally granted consent for the agency to take over the investigation.Twisha Sharma, a resident of Noida, was found dead at her matrimonial home in Bhopal on May 12, months after marrying Samarth Singh in December 2025. Her family has alleged dowry harassment, mental torture and attempts to tamper with evidence after her death.
