The body of Twisha Sharma, a 33-year-old Noida resident found dead in Bhopal on May 12, was cremated in Bhopal on Sunday evening after a second post-mortem examination was conducted by a four-member team of doctors from AIIMS Delhi, in compliance with a Madhya Pradesh High Court order.
Emotional scenes unfolded at Bhadbhada Vishram Ghat in Bhopal, where the last rites were performed after 5 PM. Twisha's mother and other members of the family were inconsolable as the funeral pyre was lit after performing rituals.
"Today, we are going to bid farewell to a daughter, a sister, a friend and an innocent life. The daughter who had begun a new phase of life with dreams has left us all too soon. The vacant eyes of parents, shattered dreams, and every passing moment spent waiting for justice raise a silent question before society," Twisha's father, Navnidhi Sharma, told PTI earlier in the day.
Twisha, an actor-model, was found hanging at her marital home in Bhopal's Katara Hills area on May 12. An FIR was subsequently registered against her husband, Samarth Singh, a lawyer, and her mother-in-law, Giribala Singh, a former district judge, for alleged harassment for dowry.
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The High Court had directed a fresh post-mortem examination on Friday in view of questions raised by Twisha's family regarding the initial findings and the circumstances of her death. The four-member team of senior doctors from AIIMS Delhi arrived in Bhopal on Saturday night and commenced the second autopsy on Sunday morning.
Twisha, an MBA graduate and a former Miss Pune title holder from the Greater Noida region, had married Samarth Singh in December 2025 and was declared dead upon arrival at the hospital, barely five months after the wedding.
Her family accused Samarth Singh and Giribala Singh of dowry harassment, mental abuse and torture, alleging that dowry demands continued even after the marriage, accompanied by taunts that the wedding arrangements had not met expectations. Giribala Singh and her family maintained that Twisha died by suicide and claimed she was facing mental health struggles and possible substance-related issues, though such claims were reportedly not confirmed in the initial autopsy findings.
Samarth Singh had been on the run until he was taken into custody from Jabalpur on May 22. Three formal notices have also been sent to his mother, Giribala Singh. A court in Bhopal on Saturday remanded Singh to a seven-day police custody. A reward of Rs 30,000 had been declared for information leading to his arrest. Singh's counsel submitted the accused's passport to the court. Following his arrest, the Bar Council of India also suspended his advocate licence.
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The Supreme Court on Saturday took suo motu cognisance of the case over alleged institutional bias and procedural discrepancies in the matter. A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi is scheduled to hear the matter on May 25.
The Madhya Pradesh government has already recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the matter. Twisha's family has expressed demand for a fair investigation from the CBI.
