Twisha Sharma cremated in Bhopal after second autopsy

The last rites of actor-model Twisha Sharma, whose family has accused her in-laws of dowry harassment and abetment to suicide, were held in Bhopal on Sunday evening, bringing a close to a 12-day wait marked by legal battles, forensic scrutiny and mounting public attention.

Her brother Major Harshit Sharma lit the funeral pyre at Bhadbhada Vishram Ghat after a second postmortem was conducted earlier in the day by an AIIMS Delhi team at AIIMS Bhopal.

Twisha (33), a former Miss Pune, was found hanging at her matrimonial home in Bhopal’s Katara Hills on 12 May. Her family has alleged dowry harassment, while her in-laws have claimed she struggled with drug addiction.

The delayed cremation followed a Madhya Pradesh High Court order directing a second autopsy after the family raised concerns over alleged lapses in the initial local investigation.

The AIIMS Delhi team spent nearly four hours conducting the examination, focusing on preserving evidence and examining injuries the family says were overlooked earlier. The team also visited Twisha’s residence and the alleged incident site.

AIIMS Delhi’s forensic medicine chief Dr Sudhir Gupta said the final report would take time as laboratory tests, including histopathology and viscera examination, were pending. He said the team would return to Delhi on Monday with samples, photographs, videos and written observations.

The emotional toll of the nearly two-week ordeal became visible during the cremation, with grieving relatives breaking down after days spent pressing for a fresh forensic examination.

In a statement issued before the funeral, the Sharma family described the anguish of waiting days to perform the last rites, saying the delay forced them to depart from customary Hindu mourning practices.

Twisha’s father Navnidhi Sharma expressed hope that justice would prevail, citing the Supreme Court’s decision to take suo motu cognisance of the case. “She used to care for us like a mother. I don’t know how we will live without her,” he said. Her brother remembered her as “emotional, loving and caring”, likening her to “the first ray of the morning sun”.

Retired major-general Shyam Shrivastava, founder of the Vardi Foundation, pledged continued support for the family, saying, “We will fight to the finish.” Former IAS officer Ajeeta Vajpayee Pandey and leaders from the BJP, Congress and Samajwadi Party attended the funeral.

The case has drawn national attention because of the background of the accused. Twisha’s husband Samarth Singh is a lawyer, while her mother-in-law Giribala Singh is a retired district judge.

Following protests by the family, including a demonstration outside chief minister Mohan Yadav’s residence, the chief minister assured them the case would be handed over to the CBI.

Samarth Singh was remanded to police custody by a Bhopal court on Saturday. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the matter on Monday before a three-judge bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant.

The family had urged the AIIMS Delhi team to adopt a multidisciplinary forensic approach and independently examine concerns they said were inadequately addressed during the first postmortem.

Among the issues flagged were alleged blunt-force injuries on Twisha’s left arm, the absence of detailed dissection to determine the age and depth of injuries, lack of radiological examination of neck structures, and the need for toxicological analysis and correlation between ligature marks and recorded injuries.

The family also sought a review of whether findings relating to the face, eyes and lungs were consistent with hanging, strangulation, suffocation or another possible cause of death.

With PTI inputs