CCTV footage reviewed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) shows a 34-year-old woman walking alone upstairs from the ground floor of her home in Bhopal. This occurred four minutes after a significant event, leading her towards the terrace.
An extraordinary minute-by-minute account forms part of the CBI’s 30-page chargesheet in the Twisha Sharma death case, filed on August 14, which accuses her husband and his mother of subjecting Twisha to mental cruelty and abetting her suicide.
And perhaps the most striking part is the fact that on the very morning of her death, Twisha had already booked a train ticket to leave Bhopal and return to her family. She was then referred to another doctor, Dr Kakoli Roy. The day before her death, Twisha again messaged her mother. Twisha was subsequently brought down by Samarth, his cousin and a house help and taken to AIIMS Bhopal. Second AIIMS postmortem rules death a suicide, finds no assault injuries. The case had also generated controversy over Twisha’s postmortem. Her family alleged that the report had been manipulated and sought another examination. That report, reproduced in the CBI chargesheet, concluded that the cause of death was asphyxia resulting from ante-mortem hanging and described the manner of death as suicidal. Significantly, the AIIMS Delhi board also recorded that there was no other injury of medico-legal importance suggesting assault before death.
The first postmortem by AIIMS Bhopal concluded that the death was due to ante-mortem hanging. This extraordinary minute-by-minute account forms part of the CBI’s 30-page chargesheet in the Twisha Sharma death case, filed on August 14, which accuses her husband Samarth Singh and his mother Giribala Singh, a retired Principal and District Judge, of subjecting Twisha to sustained mental cruelty and abetting her suicide. Following an order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, a medical board from AIIMS Delhi conducted a second postmortem on May 24. And crucially, the CBI has sought permission to continue the investigation under Section 193(9) of the BNSS into the allegations of dowry demand and dowry death.
The CBI says the doctor found Twisha “emotionally distressed”, anxious and uncomfortable during the session. Twisha allegedly told the doctor that Samarth and his family were unhappy over her decision to terminate the pregnancy and wanted her to continue it.
