Twisha and Deepika: 2 daughters, 2 shocking deaths, 2 families wait for answers

In Twisha’s case, husband Samarth, a lawyer, and mother-in-law Giribala Singh, a retired district judge, have been booked. While Samarth is on the run, Giribala has secured anticipatory bail. Deepika’s husband, Ritik, a real estate businessman studying law, and her father-in-law, Manoj, have been arrested.

Twisha Sharma married Samarth Singh in December last year

The Twisha Sharma story

Twisha entered modelling circuits as a teenager between 2009 and 2012. She won the Miss Pune title, and it opened doors to advertising campaigns and regional cinema. She completed an MBA and her LinkedIn profile points to ambitions such as marketing professional, communications specialist, actor, filmmaker and digital creator.

“She was a dynamic lady,” her father, Navnidhi Sharma, told The Indian Express. “She did presentations in Malaysia and Indonesia. She worked in advertisements. We are getting condolence messages from Bollywood actors and people across the country.”

Friends also describe her as a certified yoga instructor and a Vipassana practitioner. A relative said she had featured in advertisements for brands such as Dove and L’Oréal, and travelled to Australia for a film shoot just before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Her husband, Samarth Singh, describes himself on LinkedIn as an independent litigator. A graduate of National Law School of India University, he lists an Erasmus Mundus exchange programme at Ghent University and a stint as legal advisor to the Madhya Pradesh government between 2023 and 2025. His mother, Giribala Singh, is a retired district judge.

Twisha and Samarth connected on a matrimonial platform and married in December 2025. The marriage, according to police records and family allegations, deteriorated rapidly.

The FIR filed based on the complaint by Twisha’s family lists taunts over dowry, accusations about Twisha’s character and pressure surrounding her pregnancy. Her parents have also alleged that she was accused of carrying another man’s child and underwent an abortion after pressure from her husband and mother-in-law. Giribala Singh, however, has denied the allegations and claimed Twisha was seeking psychiatric treatment and suffering from drug abuse and that her mental health collapsed days before her alleged suicide.

The postmortem report has said the cause of Twisha’s death was “antemortem hanging by ligature”. It also noted “multiple antemortem injuries (simple in nature, possible by blunt force) over other parts of the body”.

The investigation has come under scrutiny after it was found that the investigating officer failed to produce a nylon belt allegedly used in the hanging. The autopsy noted that because of this omission, “scientific correlation between the ligature mark and the alleged material could not be established.”

The Deepika Nagar story

Twenty-four-year-old Deepika married Ritik in December 2024 and was found dead on Monday. Her family has alleged harassment over dowry. Sister Sarika said, “Over the past month, her workload had increased. Her feet were hurting and she was weak after two abortions due to medical complications, but her mother-in-law used to make her complete all household chores,” she said. “How could a 24- year-old woman manage the entire house? But she was still managing it alone. I said do what you can and leave the rest,” she said.

An Integrated BA B.Ed graduate, Deepika had a grand wedding and her family spent over a crore. “We gave Scorpio N SUV, cash, more than 20 tolas of gold, 14 earrings to the male relatives, and all the furniture. When the in-laws did not like the bed, my father sent another one,” Sarika said. Despite this, she alleged, Deepika’s mother-in-law taunted her. “Before Karva Chauth in October, the family started asking for more, as there is a tradition to send gifts, cash, and jewellery to daughters, but we sent for in-laws as well.”

Deepika’s postmortem report lists a blood clot in the brain, ruptured spleen, and bruises all over the body. According to a police officer, the report indicates that while the injuries were caused by the fall, some appear to be ante-mortem (before death).

India’s dowry menace

The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, criminalises giving or taking dowry and lays down a minimum five-year jail term for this crime.
Harassment over dowry is also punishable under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Section 80 lays down, “Where the death of a woman is caused by any burns or bodily injury or occurs otherwise than under normal circumstances within seven years of her marriage and it is shown that soon before her death she was subjected to cruelty or harassment by her husband or any relative of her husband for, or in connection with, any demand for dowry, such death shall be called “dowry death”, and such husband or relative shall be deemed to have caused her death.” “Whoever commits dowry death shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than seven years but which may extend to imprisonment for life,” it adds.

Data, however, flies in the face of the laws. The practice continues unabated across several states, with expensive gifts demanded and given during weddings in the name of tradition. According to the National Crime Records Bureau’s Crime in India report from 2024, India recorded 5,737 dowry deaths in a year – an average of 15 women dying in a day. Among metro cities, Delhi was at the top in this infamous list, recording 109 such deaths.