Samarth Singh, the husband of model and actor , arrived at the Jabalpur High Court to surrender on Friday, after absconding for days in a dowry death case filed against him and his mother.
The development came during hearings before Justice Avanindra Kumar Singh in a batch of connected matters arising out of Twisha’s death, including pleas seeking cancellation of anticipatory bail granted to her mother-in-law, Giribala Singh, as well as her family’s request for a second postmortem.
Samarth had approached the court seeking relief after his anticipatory bail plea was rejected by the sessions court.
The high court also heard preliminary submissions on Twisha’s father’s plea seeking a second postmortem of his daughter at AIIMS . During the proceedings, the state indicated that it would not oppose a second postmortem if sought by the victim’s family.
At the same time, the court also took up petitions filed both by Twisha’s father and the state government seeking cancellation of the anticipatory bail granted to Giribala Singh. Both petitions allege that the retired judicial officer tampered with evidence, leaked selective CCTV footage, failed to cooperate with investigators and influenced the investigation.
Addressing reporters after the hearing in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh Advocate General Prashant Singh said the High Court directed the Director of AIIMS Delhi to constitute a medical board for conducting the second postmortem and ordered that logistical support be arranged immediately thereafter.
Meanwhile, in its petition filed before the Madhya Pradesh High Court, the state government alleged that the sessions court granted anticipatory bail to Giribala Singh “in a very mechanical manner without going through the prosecution evidence,” despite what it described as “crystal clear allegations” emerging from WhatsApp chats between Twisha Sharma and her parents.
One of the strongest allegations made by the state concerns the handling and public circulation of CCTV footage from the house where Twisha was found dead. According to the petition, police had already seized the CCTV footage from the residence on May 13 as part of the investigation.
However, the government alleged that Giribala Singh had separately retained copies of the footage and later strategically leaked “selected small clips” on social media “in a manner to tamper prosecution evidence and obstruct investigation.”
According to the state, the investigating officer issued notices to Giribala Singh on May 13 and May 14 directing her to cooperate in the investigation, but “she did not turn up.” Even after securing anticipatory bail, the state alleged, she continued to evade investigators.
The petition states that a notice sent through WhatsApp on May 20 seeking her appearance for questioning went unanswered despite being seen. It further alleges that when a police officer visited her residence on May 21, her domestic help informed police that she was unavailable and refused to accept the notice.
“Thus, it is apparent that she is not cooperating in the investigation and is blatantly violating the terms and conditions of the order of grant of anticipatory bail,” the government argued, adding that she was “deliberately avoiding interrogation and gives evasive replies.”
