Bhopal: The mystery surrounding the disappearance of Archana Tiwari, a 28-year-old lawyer from Madhya Pradesh who vanished during a train journey, ended on Wednesday after police revealed she had staged her own vanishing act to avoid marriage.
Tiwari, who wants to become a judge, was “under intense pressure from her family to abandon her studies and marry a Patwari”, according to Railway Superintendent of Police Rahul Kumar Lodha.
She confided in her friend, Saransh, amid the increasing pressure on her and they hatched a plan to ‘disappear’.
Their plan reportedly involved an ‘accident’ on the Narmada Express. “She deliberately left her bag on the train to simulate a fall, switched coaches at Narmadapuram — where CCTV coverage was absent — and instructed Tejinder, another accomplice, to dispose of her mobile phone in the forests of Bagratawa near Itarsi,” the officer told IANS.
However, Tejinder, a driver, was later arrested by the Delhi Police in a separate fraud case. According to reports, Tiwari planned her mysterious disappearance along with her 2-3 friends. Police said Saranash, Archana’s friend, had purchased a new phone and a SIM card registered in his father’s name. Saransh had left his own phone in Indore to create a false location and digital footprint.
The duo bypassed toll booths and purchased a new mobile mid-journey. As media coverage over her disappearance intensified, Tiwari and Saransh moved to Hyderabad, then travelled to Kathmandu, Nepal, via Jodhpur and Delhi.
Saransh later returned to Indore and was detained by the police. Police then tracked Archana’s movements using mobile data and witness accounts, eventually locating her in Lakhimpur Kheri in UP. Officers persuaded her to come to the India-Nepal border, where she was apprehended and flown back to Bhopal on Wednesday, reported News 18.
