New Delhi: Days after 33-year-old Twisha Sharma was found dead in her matrimonial home in Bhopal on 12 May, her postmortem report has indicated “multiple ante mortem injuries (or injuries prior to death) possible due to blunt force” on her body.
The report, accessed by ThePrint, also mentions that she had undergone a procedure for medical termination of pregnancy, just about a week before her death. The findings point to death by hanging.
Twisha’s husband Samarth Singh, a criminal lawyer in Bhopal, and her mother-in-law Giribala Singh, a retired judge, have been booked by Madhya Pradesh Police for alleged dowry harassment on the complaint of the deceased’s family. Vikas Kumar Sehwal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Bhopal zone-2, told The Print that an FIR had been lodged under Section 80(2) (dowry death) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
The family has alleged that Twisha was being “physically and mentally harassed” for dowry. In a statement, Twisha’s mother Rekha Sharma alleged that her daughter was “subjected to continuous mental cruelty, emotional harassment, physical abuse, unnatural sex, forceful drugs abuse and dowry-related pressure after marriage”.
The family has also claimed that Twisha had repeatedly communicated “distress and fear regarding her matrimonial circumstances prior to her death”.
Twisha, who hailed from Uttar Pradesh’s Noida, had previously worked as a model and won the Miss Pune crown in 2012. She later worked in the field of marketing, following which she got married to Samarth, around five months ago.
Twisha was found dead in Samarth’s residence, where she lived post the wedding, in Katara Hills area on the night of 12 May, after which she was taken to hospital and declared brought dead, prompting the doctors at AIIMS Bhopal to alert the police. “She was brought to the hospital by her mother-in-law and husband,” the officer told The Print.
Twisha’s family, however, has also alleged a “bonhomie” between local police and the accused mother-son duo, saying that the officers delayed lodging an FIR.
They claimed that several legal practitioners in Bhopal have expressed “unwillingness or hesitation in representing the family against such influential persons”, adding that it has created an atmosphere of “fear and helplessness, seriously undermining their confidence in obtaining fair legal representation and impartial investigation at the local level”.
The DCP, however, denied the allegations and said that the FIR was filed soon after the legal requirements were completed. “The officers only tried to explain the legal aspects to the family as they were making both murder and dowry harassment allegations,” the DCP said.
Meanwhile, Twisha’s relatives also staged a demonstration outside the chief minister’s residence in Bhopal to seek justice for her, and have also launched a campaign on social media.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)