A 33-year-old woman from Noida was found dead inside her matrimonial home, just five months after she moved into a powerful legal family in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal. Her family later accused her husband and his in-laws of subjecting her to mental harassment, dowry pressure, and ill-treatment.
On Wednesday, Bhopal Police asked the victim’s family to take possession of her body, saying there were fears that it might start decomposing as AIIMS Bhopal does not have ultra-low temperature storage facilities.
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Bhopal Police urges the victim’s family to take custody of the body
The station house officer (SHO) of Katara Hills police station sent a message to her father, Navnidhi Sharma, on Wednesday. The post-mortem examination was conducted on May 13 as part of a case registered under sections relating to dowry harassment and the Dowry Prohibition Act, the letter said.
She added that the body is being stored at the AIIMS Bhopal mortuary at a temperature of less than four degrees Celsius.
“At present, the body is kept in the AIIMS Bhopal mortuary at a temperature of minus four degrees Celsius. AIIMS Bhopal, through a letter written on May 18, 2026, has stated that to prevent decomposition, the body should be kept at a temperature of minus 80 degrees Celsius, but such facility is not available at AIIMS Bhopal,” it said in a rough translation of the letter written in Hindi.
Police also said they had “no objection” to a second examination of the body.
The letter added: “You have submitted a request to the Office of the Police Commissioner and Katara Hills Police Station regarding preserving the integrity of the body of the deceased and conducting repeated post-mortem examination. In this regard, you have been informed that the police have no objection to conducting another post-mortem examination. However, since the body of the deceased has been kept in the mortuary for a long time, there is full possibility of decomposition.”
It is worth noting that the family moved to a local court in Bhopal demanding that another examination of the body be conducted. Their counsel, advocate Ankur Pandey, told news agency PTI that they had expressed concerns about loopholes in the investigation and said the FIR was lodged three days after she was found dead.
The court hearing was scheduled for Wednesday.
Bhopal Police Commissioner Sanjay Kumar also told PTI on Wednesday that the request for a second post-mortem has been attached to the case diary, but said the final decision rests with the court.
“The police are not opposed to that. If the autopsy is done again, we have no objection,” he said.
Bhopal woman death case
The woman, a resident of Noida, married Bhopal-based Samarth Singh in December 2025. She died on May 12, and her family has accused her in-laws of mental harassment and dowry-related abuse.
Police lodged an FIR against her husband, lawyer Samarth Singh, and mother-in-law Gribala Singh on charges related to dowry death and harassment.
Lawyer Pandey said her parents were concerned that Gribala Singh’s sister, who works as a surgeon in Bhopal, could influence the second autopsy if it was conducted in the city.
The family continued to request another post-mortem examination, claiming that signs of injury on her body were not properly recorded in the first report.
The victim died by hanging: autopsy
The 33-year-old’s autopsy report stated that the cause of death was “antemortem suspension by a ligature.” I also noticed several minor injuries in different parts of the body resulting from blunt force.
The autopsy was conducted at the Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology at AIIMS Bhopal. According to the report, she was found hanging from a gymnastic rope on her balcony at around 10:26 pm on May 12. Her death was announced shortly after midnight on May 13.
A patterned red double ligature mark was seen obliquely around the upper third of the neck, the report said. The skin beneath the mark has been described as dry, hard, and “plazy.” News agency ANI also said that the lace mark was incomplete at the back of the neck.
She also reported several findings associated with suffocation, including facial congestion, blue discoloration of the ears and fingernails, and a petechial hemorrhage in the right eye.
With input from agencies
