BHOPAL: A retired district judge and her advocate son have been booked in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal in connection with the alleged dowry death of the latter’s wife, police said.The woman, 31-year-old Twisha Sharma from Noida, was found hanging at her marital home in Katara Hills on the night of May 12, according to news agency PTI.Police said Sharma had met the accused through a dating app in 2024 and the two married in December 2025.“The accused and his mother rushed Twisha to a hospital, where she was declared dead on arrival by doctors. Police was alerted about the case by hospital authorities at around 11pm,” Katara Hills police station in-charge Sunil Kumar Dubey told PTI.According to police, Sharma’s family alleged that she had been harassed for dowry and murdered by her in-laws.Her relatives claimed she had spoken to them over phone till around 10pm on Tuesday and had expressed a desire to leave Bhopal and return to Noida.“A case under Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita related to dowry death and dowry harassment has been registered against Giribala Singh and Samarth Singh. Efforts are being made to arrest them,” additional police commissioner (Zone-2) Gautam Solanki said.The case gained attention after Sharma’s family alleged physical assault, dowry harassment and attempts to destroy evidence. Her brother, an Indian Army major, also sought intervention from senior authorities over an alleged delay in registration of the FIR.Family members staged protests outside Katara Hills police station and later at the women’s police station, alleging police inaction and demanding registration of a criminal case.Police registered the FIR around 3.30am on Friday under Sections 80, 85 and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with Sections 3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act.Section 80 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertains to dowry death and carries a punishment ranging from a minimum of seven years’ imprisonment to life imprisonment. Section 85 relates to cruelty by husband or relatives of the husband.Retired judge gets bailLater on Friday, a Bhopal court granted anticipatory bail to retired judge.“The court granted anticipatory bail to the former judge, while the hearing on her son’s plea will take place on Monday,” her counsel told TOI.‘Multiple antemortem injuries’A postmortem conducted at AIIMS Bhopal stated that “death is due to antemortem hanging by ligature”.The autopsy report further noted: “Multiple antemortem injuries (simple in nature, possible by blunt force) over other parts of the body have been noted.”According to the forensic findings, blood and viscera samples preserved for toxicological analysis “rule out concomitant intoxication”.The report also said nail clippings had been preserved for DNA analysis and noted that the ligature material was “neither present in situ nor submitted by IO for examination by us.”
