The Madhya Pradesh Police have requested Twisha Sharma’s family to retrieve her body from AIIMS Bhopal due to the hospital’s inability to provide the required -80 degrees Celsius storage to prevent decomposition. Twisha Sharma, the wife of Samarth Singh, passed away on May 12 in Katara Hills, with the police suspecting suicide. Her post-mortem was conducted at AIIMS Bhopal on May 13, and the body has been housed in the mortuary since then.
In a letter addressed to Twisha Sharma’s father, the Katara Hills Police Station informed that the body is currently preserved at a temperature of -4 degrees Celsius within the AIIMS Bhopal mortuary. The police station mentioned that this decision was made following an advisory from AIIMS Bhopal, where it was suggested that the body needs to be stored at -80 degrees Celsius to prevent decomposition, a facility not available at the hospital.
The standard mortuary freezers at AIIMS Bhopal operate within a range of -4 degrees to 4 degrees Celsius, which slows down but does not stop decomposition over extended periods. With the body having been at the hospital for eight days, there is a growing risk of decomposition. The police have expressed readiness for a re-postmortem but have requested the family to take custody of the body due to the prolonged storage duration.
The family has declined to claim the body until a second post-mortem is conducted outside Madhya Pradesh. They have filed an application in the Bhopal magistrate court seeking the examination to be carried out at AIIMS, New Delhi, emphasizing the importance of an independent medical opinion from a reputed national institution to enhance public trust in the investigation. The investigation under the Dowry Prohibition Act is ongoing, with the magistrate’s court expected to address the family’s request for a second autopsy later in the day.
