A missing-persons mystery that consumed police across Madhya Pradesh ended with a startling revelation: 29-year-old lawyer Archana Tiwari staged her own disappearance to avoid pressure from her family to marry, cops said. Tiwari, who was reported missing on August 5 after boarding the Narmada Express, was traced to Kathmandu after nearly two weeks of intensive searches.
According to Government Railway Police (GRP) Superintendent Rahul Kumar Lodha, Archana Tiwari meticulously planned the escape with the help of a 24-year-old friend from Indore and his driver.
The official said, “She wanted to pursue her ambition of becoming a judge, but her family insisted she abandon her studies and marry a revenue officer. She decided to vanish and start a new life.”
Planning the escape
Investigators said Tiwari leveraged her legal knowledge to plan the disappearance. She believed vanishing during a train journey would shift responsibility to the GRP and reduce the chances of being tracked. On the night of August 5, she boarded the Narmada Express with a bag full of rakhis and gifts for her family. Hours later, at Narmadapuram station, she slipped away, where her friend was waiting in an SUV. She changed clothes and handed over her phone and smartwatch, which were discarded in a nearby forest to mislead investigators. The next morning, her family waited in vain at Katni South station. Only her abandoned bag was found, prompting fears she had met with an accident.
Escape route
From Itarsi, Tiwari and her friend avoided toll booths and CCTV cameras, travelling by backroads through Shujalpur. As media coverage of the disappearance intensified, they decided to leave Madhya Pradesh. Their route took them through Burhanpur, Jodhpur and Delhi. Tiwari eventually flew to Kathmandu while her friend stayed behind, keeping his phone on flight mode and occasionally using his father’s SIM card to give the impression he was in Indore.
The breakthrough came when the driver involved was detained in Delhi in an unrelated cheating case. Under questioning, details of the escape plan surfaced. Police then questioned Tiwari’s friend, who revealed her location. Investigators contacted her in Kathmandu, and she agreed to return voluntarily.
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