BHOPAL: A judicial magistrate first class (JMFC) Court in Bhopal, which heard the high-profile model-actor Twisha Sharma’s May 12 alleged dowry death case on Tuesday, extended till July 14, the judicial custody of both the accused -- Twisha’s husband Samarth Singh and her former judge mother-in-law Giribala Singh.
Accepting the CBI’s plea to extend the judicial remand of the mother-son duo, as the probe was far from being complete and the May 27 second autopsy’s report too is still reported – the JMFC court extended the duo’s judicial custody at the Bhopal Central Jail by two weeks till July 14.
The CBI also moved two pleas, including permission to get from Samarth Singh the password of his laptop seized for probe. Since the laptop is password-protected, hence the forensic experts at the central forensic science lab are unable to retrieve the data from it.
Also, the CBI petitioned the court for permission to get voice samples of the accused mother-son duo for conducting voice spectrography test (forensic voice analysis) of some audio recordings of Samarth and Giribala’s conversation, which form a crucial part of the probe. The test is primarily used in criminal investigations to compare a suspect’s voice with a disputed or evidentiary recording.
Theft at Giribala Singh’s house dominates court hearing
The issue of June 28 early morning theft at Giribala Singh’s house located in Bhopal’s Bagmugaliya Extension area, meanwhile, dominated Tuesday's court hearing.
Giribala Singh who along with son Samarth Singh appeared before the court in the hearing via video conferencing from the Bhopal Central Jail, expressed concern over the recent theft in her house. She requested the Court to direct the city police team probing the case to record her statements for drawing a list of the property which was housed in the portion of the house where the alleged theft happened at around 2.15 am on June 28.
“My client has every right to tell the police what all property existed in the portion of the house where the theft happened. Only after recording her statements, will the police be able to ascertain what all has been burgled by the masked burglars,” Giribala’s counsel Enosh George Carlo told TNIE after Tuesday's court hearing.
The CBI counsels objected to Giribala raising the issue of theft and seeking permission in the matter, to get her statements recorded before the cops probing the theft case. The CBI’s legal team argued that since the theft case being probed by the police was a separate case and had nothing to with hearing in Twisha Sharma’s death case, hence Giribala’s requests should not be entertained.
On the other hand, Twisha’s father Navnidhi Sharma and army officer brother, Harshit, who too were present during Tuesday’s hearing, suspected a larger conspiracy behind the June 28 theft in Twisha’s matrimonial house, possibly to influence the probe and evidences and mislead the investigators in the high-profile death case.
According to Bhopal police sources, it was the first floor of the house – which houses Giribala Singh and Samarth-Twisha’s rooms, where the theft actually happened at around 2.15 am on June 28. While three-four masked burglars made their way into the house from the rear side, at least two others waited for them outside the house.
Major portion of the property kept in Giribala’s room is suspected to have been burgled by the masked men, who broke almirahs in the ex-judge’s room. “When a police patrol vehicle spotted three of the burglars at around 5 am near Giribala’s house, two of them fled immediately, while the police was able to recover a bag from the third man, who too succeeded in fleeing. The recovered bag contained a licensed old revolver and some silver ornaments-valuables,” a police officer probing the theft case confided to this newspaper.
As per Giribala’s counsel Enosh George Carlo, the old revolver, is actually the family’s heritage possession, as it originally belonged to the former judge’s ex-army officer father. Currently, the licensed revolver is in Giribala’s elder son, IAF’s Squadron Leader Siddharth Singh’s name.
Sources added that while three men were spotted, but couldn’t be nabbed, despite the bag being snatched away from one of them, three other burglars had left the place much before the police patrol vehicle spotted the remaining trio and chased them. The other three who couldn’t be spotted at all are believed to have decamped with major gold and brass booty.
As per informed sources, before taking into custody Giribala Singh from her house on May 28, the CBI team had seized from the house, the jewellery belonging to Twisha Sharma and left behind gold jewellery owned by Giribala Singh, which was possibly kept in the almirahs broken by the burglars in the former judge’s room on June 28.
Back on May 12 night, 33-years-old model-actor Twisha Sharma who was married to Bhopal based advocate Samarth Singh in December 2025, was allegedly found hanging to death on the terrace of the same house.
Giribala and Samarth’s counsel questions delay in report of the second autopsy
Meanwhile, Giribala and Samarth’s counsel Enosh George Carlo, questioned on Tuesday, the delay in the report of the second autopsy of Twisha’s body which was conducted by a team of experts from AIIMS-Delhi in Bhopal on the MP High Court’s order on May 27.
“Why is this inordinate delay taking place in the submission of the second autopsy report to the CBI by the AIIMS-Delhi team which conducted the second post-mortem on May 27,” the counsel for the mother-son duo questioned.
On the contrary, Anurag Shrivastava, the counsel for Twisha’s father, said, “The first autopsy report by experts at AIIMS-Bhopal on May 13 was done hastily and inadequately, which is why we demanded from the MP High Court, a second autopsy by the AIIMS-Delhi team. It’s not just the CBI which is patiently awaiting the second autopsy’s report, but we too are not worried about the delay in its submission. The AIIMS-Delhi experts instead of submitting multiple reports in parts, maybe working at preparing a detailed and fully conclusive report, after conducting all tests and analysis. But in future if there is an unusual delay in the second autopsy’s report, we’ll request the Court to ask AIIMS-Delhi to explain the reasons.”
