India's CBI Arrests Mother-in-Law in Dowry Death Case of Model Twisha Sharma

New Delhi. India's top crime investigation agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), has arrested the mother-in-law in connection with the death of an Indian woman. This incident has generated controversial claims from both murder and suicide angles.

The family of the deceased Twisha Sharma has alleged that her lawyer husband Samarth Singh and his mother, retired judge Giribala Singh, tortured and murdered her due to dowry demands. However, the Singh family has denied these allegations.

33-year-old model and actress Twisha was found dead in her in-laws' house in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, on May 12, just five months after her marriage. On Thursday, the CBI arrested Giribala Singh after several hours of interrogation. Earlier, the Madhya Pradesh High Court had rejected her anticipatory bail, concluding that the lower court had ignored crucial evidence and witness statements.

After Twisha's death, the police had registered a dowry death case against the Singh family. Recently, the CBI took over the investigation. This incident has brought the serious problem of dowry-related violence in India back into discussion. Although the law banned the dowry system in 1961, it is said that thousands of women die for similar reasons every year.

As Twisha was a former beauty pageant winner and artist, this case has attracted further attention. Both her husband and mother-in-law are lawyers. According to the family, mental and physical torture began over the issue of dowry after the marriage. They also claim that after Twisha became pregnant, her husband and mother-in-law accused her of infidelity and forced her to have an abortion.

The Singh family, however, denied these allegations, claiming that Twisha had mental health problems and committed suicide. They also stated that the decision for abortion was her own.

Currently, Twisha's husband is in police custody. He had absconded after her death and was later arrested from Jabalpur on May 22. Twisha's funeral was held on Sunday after a second post-mortem. The family alleged that the first post-mortem was flawed and that the police covered it up, but the police have denied these claims.