Giribala Singh, a retired judge and accused in the death case of her daughter-in-law Twisha Sharma, lost her anticipatory bail in a late-night hearing by the Madhya Pradesh high court on Wednesday.
The HC cited non-cooperation in its order while the victim's side highlighted character assassination in its argument.
Giribala Singh was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday.
The case is currently being investigated by the CBI, and a first information report (FIR) was registered on May 15 in the case.
A trial court granted Giribala Singh interim bail within a few hours of the FIR registration while her son Samarth - who surrendered after 10 days of being missing - remains in custody of the CBI.
The high court quashed the anticipatory bail order given by Bhopal district court on May 15, citing consistent allegations, non-cooperation, heinous nature of offence, and trial court’s failure to consider evidence.
The HC also noted that Giribala Singh did not cooperate with the investigation agency despite several notices being issued to her for recording her statement and cooperating with the agency.
The court observed that the lower court did not consider several key facts such as WhatsApp chats, which suggest that the allegations are not only against Samarth Singh.
The court also cited injury marks mentioned in the postmortem report, which showed that the death was due to antemortem hanging by ligature, and six other injuries were found in the body of the deceased.
The victim's family lawyer, Ankur Pandey, said the high court quashed the anticipatory bail of Giribala Singh after considering submissions from all parties and objections related to the investigation.
