The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday (May 28, 2026) arrested retired Bhopal district judge Giribala Singh in the Twisha Sharma dowry harassment and death case, a day after the Madhya Pradesh High Court rejected the anticipatory bail a local court had granted her on May 15.
Ms. Singh, Twisha’s mother-in-law, was questioned for six hours at her house in Bhopal before the arrest, the agency’s Chief Information Officer Beena Yadav told The Hindu. On Thursday morning, several CBI officers arrived at Ms. Singh’s residence and carried out an investigation and recreated the crime scene.
Ms. Yadav said that Giribala Singh will be produced before a local court on Friday (May 29, 2026) and the CBI will seek her custody.
Twisha’s husband Samarth Singh, a lawyer, is in CBI custody. Ms. Singh will be produced before a court and the CBI is expected to seek her custody. The agency plans to confront the mother and son with each other’s statements and interrogate them on the circumstances leading to Twisha’s death, officials said.
The anticipatory bail was granted just hours after an FIR was lodged by local police against Ms. Singh and her son.
Late on Thursday (May 28, 2026), the single Bench of Justice Devnarayan Mishra issued the order after hearing petitions by Twisha’s father Navnidhi Sharma and the State Government challenging the bail.
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In its observations, the High Court noted that some of the injuries found on Twisha’s body were “not caused due to taking out the body from the ligature or carrying out to the hospital” and that one head injury “was antemortem”, suffered before death.
“As per the postmortem report, the death was due to antemortem hanging by ligature, but from the postmortem, it is also clear that six other injuries were found in the body of the deceased, in which four injuries were on the left arm, one on the ring finger and one on the head, and that was antemortem. From the query report, it is also clear that these injuries were not caused by taking out the body from the ligature or carrying out to the hospital,” it said.
The High Court observed that the trial court did not consider allegations, presented by the victim’s family, against Ms. Singh while granting the anticipatory bail.
“In light of the above factual aspects of the case and the allegation levelled against the respondent [Ms. Singh], the anticipatory bail order dated May 15, 2026, passed by the 10th Additional Sessions Judge, Bhopal, for the offence punishable under Sections 80(2), 85, 3(5) of BNS, 2023 and Sections 3 & 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, is hereby quashed,” the court ruled.
The court’s observations prompted Twisha’s family to reiterate claims that their daughter “was killed”.
During the hearing on Thursday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Madhya Pradesh government, argued that “the manner in which anticipatory bail was obtained, creates doubt that the trial court did not consider the aspect relevant for granting anticipatory bail.”
“After granting bail, the respondent was making press conferences and making allegations against the deceased and flouting the law. In such a serious matter, when the girl, aged about 33 years, lost her life, the respondent has no remorse and has not tried to cooperate with the investigating agency. The trial court did not consider a single line of the prosecution witnesses and totally believed in the defence documents,” he told the court.
Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, who appeared for Twisha’s father, said that Ms. Singh used her “skills”, learned during her tenure as a judge, to “tamper” the evidence and the crime scene.
“The respondent [Ms. Singh] is a retired judicial officer and obtained the training of Special Courses on Cyber Crimes, Cyber Forensic & Digital Signature Technology and Crime Scene Management and used her skills to tamper the crime scene…,” Mr. Luthra said.
The CBI’s counsel Deputy Solicitor General Suyash Mohan Guru had flagged the “mystery revolving around the death” and the “possible involvement of the influential accused”. He had said that the accused were not able to provide any explanation about some of the injuries found on Twisha’s body. Mr. Mohan Guru said that Ms. Singh’s sister, Rajbala Singh Bhadoriya who is a private doctor in Bhopal, and another private doctor were present inside the post-mortem room during the first autopsy conducted at AIIMS Bhopal on May 13.
Published – May 28, 2026 06:20 pm IST
