Twisha Sharma case: Did Samarth Singh surrender or 'run away'? Advocate alleges issues
The counsel for Twisha Sharma's husband, Samarth Singh, had earlier indicated that he planned to surrender after 10 days in hiding since her death
In the ongoing Twisha Sharma "dowry death" case, the victim's advocate, Anurag Srivastav, alleges that Samarth Singh, the accused, did not actually surrender at the Jabalpur District Court as planned, despite his presence there, attributing this to possible influence from his mother, retired judge Giribala Singh, and questioning the jurisdiction of the Jabalpur court for his surrender. Srivastav further detailed a suspicious scene within the darkened courtroom, with Singh allegedly fleeing upon his arrival, and noted the withdrawal of Singh's anticipatory bail application from the Madhya Pradesh High Court hours prior, which had been previously rejected by a lower court, while Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the state government, had opposed Singh's intended surrender method, asserting he lacked the standing to address the court on the second postmortem issue.
In the ongoing Twisha Sharma "dowry death" case, the victim's advocate, Anurag Srivastav, alleges that Samarth Singh, the accused, did not actually surrender at the Jabalpur District Court as planned, despite his presence there, attributing this to possible influence from his mother, retired judge Giribala Singh, and questioning the jurisdiction of the Jabalpur court for his surrender. Srivastav further detailed a suspicious scene within the darkened courtroom, with Singh allegedly fleeing upon his arrival, and noted the withdrawal of Singh's anticipatory bail application from the Madhya Pradesh High Court hours prior, which had been previously rejected by a lower court, while Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the state government, had opposed Singh's intended surrender method, asserting he lacked the standing to address the court on the second postmortem issue.
In the ongoing Twisha Sharma "dowry death" case, the victim's advocate, Anurag Srivastav, alleges that Samarth Singh, the accused, did not actually surrender at the Jabalpur District Court as planned, despite his presence there, attributing this to possible influence from his mother, retired judge Giribala Singh, and questioning the jurisdiction of the Jabalpur court for his surrender. Srivastav further detailed a suspicious scene within the darkened courtroom, with Singh allegedly fleeing upon his arrival, and noted the withdrawal of Singh's anticipatory bail application from the Madhya Pradesh High Court hours prior, which had been previously rejected by a lower court, while Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the state government, had opposed Singh's intended surrender method, asserting he lacked the standing to address the court on the second postmortem issue.
In a fresh twist in the Twisha Sharma "dowry death" case, an advocate representing the victim has claimed that Samarth Singh had not surrendered, despite earlier plans to do so.
The advocate, Anurag Srivastav, explained that despite Singh's arrival at the Jabalpur District Court, there had been "no surrender" so far.
"Inside the courtroom of the District Court, Jabalpur, Samarth Singh was sitting comfortably in the dark, with all the lights off, wearing a mask. The judge was not on the dais," he told reporters, crying foul at the possible influence of his mother, retired judge Giribala Singh.
Srivastav also questioned why Samarth was brought to the Jabalpur court, as he allegedly had "no authority" to surrender there in the first place, and was to surrender before the trial court in Bhopal.
The victim's counsel also recalled that there had been three clerks in the dark courtroom with Samarth—all of whom allegedly had "no answer" why, and in what capacity, he had been kept there.
"As soon as Samarth Singh saw me, he ran away. His lawyers pushed me away ... I have no idea whether the police came here or not," he added.
Notably, Samarth had earlier faced a choice between two modes of surrender—either before a trial court, or before the investigating officer. Earlier today, his counsel had claimed that he was considering the former option.
This also comes just hours after they withdrew his application for anticipatory bail in the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Friday. This bail plea had reached the High Court on Thursday after earlier being rejected from a lower court.
However, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta—representing the Madhya Pradesh government—had strongly opposed the manner in which Singh had planned to surrender.
“(Samarth Singh) wants to surrender, I have no difficulty. But he has no locus standi to address the court on the second postmortem issue, which is solely between the victim’s family, the court and the state,” Mehta added, as per a Live Law report.