BHOPAL: Five months after model-actor Twisha Sharma was found hanging on the terrace of her matrimonial home in Bhopal on 12 May, her father, Navnidhi Sharma, has moved the Supreme Court seeking to transfer the ongoing trial in her daughter’s death case from Bhopal to Delhi.
According to Abhijeet Sinha, the advocate-on-record representing Sharma in the Supreme Court, and Ankur Pandey, who represents him in Bhopal, the apex court is likely to hear Navnidhi Sharma’s application on 16 July.
The application has been filed under Section 446 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. It seeks the transfer of Sessions Trial No. 584 of 2026 (CBI vs Giribala Singh and another), currently before the Tenth District and Additional Sessions Judge in Bhopal, to a competent court in Delhi. A separate application seeks a stay on the Bhopal trial while the petition is pending. In Bhopal, the trial has reached the stage of arguments on the framing of charges.
The petitioner, Navnidhi Sharma, has expressed apprehension that evidence in the case could be influenced by the accused, Twisha’s husband, Samarth Singh, and mother-in-law, Giribala Singh. The concern stems in particular from the fact that Giribala retired as the principal district and sessions judge of the same Bhopal sessions division where she is to be tried. At the time of Twisha’s death, Giribala was the president of the Bhopal District Consumer Commission. While rejecting her regular bail application on 25 July, a Bhopal sessions judge had observed that the fear of evidence being influenced “cannot be held to be baseless”.
A few months ago, Giribala’s bail application passed through five courts in Bhopal, with three judges either returning the file or recusing themselves. One judge had earlier declined to hear her anticipatory bail application for personal reasons. Another stated that Samarth Singh was her own lawyer, while a third said Giribala Singh had trained her as a probationer.
The plea to transfer the trial has also cited concerns over the quality and pace of the police investigation in the days following Twisha’s death. “The FIR was registered about 50 hours after the death. The terrace where the death took place was not properly sealed. The ligature material was not sent for the first post-mortem. Giribala Singh is alleged to have obtained copies of CCTV footage from the house and from a beauty parlour the day after the death,” Navnidhi Sharma’s legal team said in an official statement on Saturday.
The legal team further stated that Twisha’s brother, a serving Army officer, was allegedly manhandled by a group of lawyers on the premises of a Bhopal court on 15 May 2026. On 22 May, the family’s counsel was allegedly abused and pushed out of the Jabalpur district court building.
The team also pointed out that the CBI, which has been investigating the case since 25 May, conducted its investigation from Delhi. The second post-mortem examination was carried out by a board of doctors at AIIMS, New Delhi, while the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), New Delhi, issued the forensic reports. The investigating officer, Twisha’s parents and several witnesses are based in the National Capital Region.
Meanwhile, the Madhya Pradesh High Court is reportedly scheduled to resume hearing Giribala Singh’s bail application on 16 October, the same day the Supreme Court is likely to hear Navnidhi Sharma’s plea to transfer the trial from Bhopal to Delhi.
Both accused, Giribala Singh and her son, Samarth Singh, have been in judicial custody at Bhopal Central Jail since 2 June in connection with allegations of cruelty, abetment of suicide, suspected dowry death and harassment.
The CBI took over the investigation from the Bhopal Police’s special investigation team (SIT) on 25 May, following a recommendation by the state government. On 14 August, the central agency filed a chargesheet against both accused under Sections 85 and 108 and Section 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, pertaining to cruelty, abetment of suicide and acts done with common intention, respectively. The dowry angle remains under further investigation.
