Samarth Singh, the husband of model and actor Twisha Sharma, who had been absconding after her death last week in Bhopal, was taken into custody by the police after a failed attempt to surrender before Jabalpur District Court.
At around 5 pm, Samarth Singh, wearing a cap, dark sunglasses and a face mask, arrived at the Jabalpur District Court to surrender, a few hours after withdrawing his application for anticipatory bail from the MP High Court.
With the withdrawal of the application, Singh was left with no other option but to surrender.
"Samarth Singh has reached the Jabalpur district court to surrender," his lawyer Mrigendra Singh said.
However, the Jabalpur District Judge did not allow the surrender and instead asked him to surrender in Bhopal (in line with the MPHC order).
Following this, Samarth remained in the court premises for around 40 minutes, particularly in the local bar association’s chamber, even after being confronted by journalists and the advocate of Twisha’s parents.
A Bhopal Police team, already in Jabalpur earlier in the day for hearings in the HC related to multiple petitions in the same case, later took Samarth into custody with the help of local police and left for Bhopal, around 315 km away, to produce him in the case.
“He cannot surrender in Jabalpur, the MPHC has directed him to surrender either before the trial court in Bhopal or before the investigating officer in the case, also in the MP capital," said Anurag Srivastava, the lawyer for Twisha’s family.
"Even after the Jabalpur District Judge disallowed his surrender and left his court, Samarth remained seated in that courtroom with the lights off, but with the fans and air conditioner on. When questioned by local journalists and me about how a person wanted in a case and facing a lookout circular be seated there, those accompanying him, including some local advocates, took them to another building despite our opposition and remained seated in a room, possibly allotted to the local bar association,” he added.
Samarth had earlier withdrawn his anticipatory bail plea from the single bench of the high court comprising Justice Avanindra Kumar Singh, his counsel Jaydeep Kaurav said.
The anticipatory bail plea was filed before the high court on Thursday after a subordinate court turned down his application last week.
Meanwhile, the high court on Friday issued a notice to Samarth's mother and former judge Giribala Singh, who has also been named as an accused in the case, on pleas seeking cancellation of her anticipatory bail filed by Twisha's father and the state government.
Justice Avanindra Kumar Singh fixed the hearing on the petitions for May 25.
Notably, the police on Thursday issued the third and final notice to Giribala Singh for recording her statement. It also initiated a probe to determine whether she could continue as chairperson of the consumer court, an official circular said.
"If she does not cooperate, we will move the sessions court seeking cancellation of her bail," Bhopal Commissioner of Police Sanjay Kumar said on Thursday.
Giribala, a retired district and sessions judge and current chairperson of the Bhopal Consumer Court, was granted anticipatory bail last week by a Bhopal court. She is named in the FIR registered in the death case.
Twisha Sharma, a 33-year-old model-turned-actor from Noida, was found hanging at her marital home in Bhopal's Katara Hills area on May 12.
While her in-laws allege she suffered from drug addiction, her family maintains she was harassed for dowry, leading to her death.
Police registered an FIR under Sections 80(2), 85 and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with relevant provisions of the Dowry Prohibition Act, against Samarth Singh and his mother.
Police had announced a cash reward of Rs 30,000 for information leading to Samarth Singh's arrest and also approached the court seeking revocation of his passport.
(With inputs from Express News Service, Agencies)
