AIIMS forensic report links gymnastics belt to Twisha Sharma death case: Sources

The AIIMS Delhi forensic report in the Twisha Sharma death case concluded that a gymnastics belt could have been the ligature used, citing matching injury patterns and the presence of the victim's skin tissue. The CBI is examining the court-ordered report

New Delhi: The final forensic report of AIIMS Delhi in the Twisha Sharma death case has concluded that a gymnastics belt could have been used in the incident as it found the presence of the victim’s skin tissue on it, sources said.

The AIIMS Delhi medical board, which conducted a court-ordered second post-mortem on Twisha, submitted the report to the CBI on July 10, confirming that the alleged ligature material  the gymnastics belt with a metal ring at the end  matched the injury pattern on the victim’s neck, they said.

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Former model-actress Twisha, who got married to lawyer Samarth Singh last December, was found hanging at her marital home in Bhopal on May 12.

The sources said the central probe agency is studying the report by AIIMS Delhi, which conducted a second post-mortem on Twisha on May 24, after the first autopsy at AIIMS Bhopal proved inconclusive as the alleged ligature material was not produced before its medical board.

Police seized the belt later and submitted it for inspection to the second medical board led by experts from AIIMS Delhi, they said. The five-member board handed over its 11-page report to the CBI in a sealed cover, in compliance with a Madhya Pradesh High Court order.

A compliance report has also been sent to the registrar general of the high court, the sources said. According to sources familiar with the findings, laboratory and histopathological examinations detected skin tissue on the belt, which corresponded with the ligature mark and injury pattern observed during the second post-mortem.

Dr Sudhir Gupta, Head of Forensic Medicine at AIIMS Delhi, said the board undertook an exhaustive scientific evaluation before arriving at its conclusion.

“The medical board deliberated very minutely on the case from all possible angles, taking into consideration all available national and international journals for almost one month before giving a detailed opinion with scientific justification. It is a crystal-clear opinion for the CBI and for the judiciary in the interest of truth and justice,” Gupta said.

He, however, declined to elaborate further, saying the report had been submitted to the CBI in a sealed cover in compliance with the court’s directions. According to the forwarding letter, the report was handed over to the CBI investigating officer, while the videography of the second post-mortem remained in the custody of the investigating agency.

The report is expected to form a crucial piece of scientific evidence in the agency’s probe, the sources said. According to the FIR lodged in the case, Samarth took Twisha to AIIMS Bhopal, where he claimed that she had hung herself at home at 10.20 pm on May 12.

However, a doctor at AIIMS Bhopal told police later that Twisha was brought dead to the hospital after which a medico-legal case was registered, the FIR said. In their statements given to police at the time of filing the FIR, Twisha’s family members said she spoke to her mother at 9.41 pm on May 12.

During the call, Samarth could be heard shouting before the phone was cut abruptly, the family alleged. After repeated calls went unanswered, Twisha’s mother-in-law Giribala Singh, a retired judge, picked up the phone and told Twisha’s sister-in-law that “she is no more”, before cutting the call, the FIR alleged.

The first post-mortem report concluded that the death was caused by “antemortem hanging by ligature” and found “multiple antemortem injuries”. However, alleging lapses in the initial investigation and post-mortem, her family approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court, which ordered a second autopsy by AIIMS Delhi, and subsequently transferred the investigation to the CBI.

Twisha’s family had alleged that she was tormented by her in-laws, who were not satisfied with the dowry paid at the time of marriage. They also levelled allegations of mental torture and domestic violence, which allegedly pushed the 33-year-old former model-actor to take the extreme step.