
Madhya Pradesh lawyer who went missing during train journey 2 weeks ago found alive, but mystery remains
'Our team is headed to her location and will make contact with her. We will question her and then only reveal why she disappeared,' GRP Superintendent Rahul Kumar Lodha told The Indian Express.
On reports that Archana's ticket had been booked by a Gwalior-based policeman who was in touch with her over the past two years, the GRP said only an investigation would shed further light on the case. 'We are investigating the claims,' Lodha said.
Her family members have also said she made contact with them, but have refused to divulge any further details.
The disappearance of the 29-year-old had sparked a multi-state search and raised questions about what happened during what should have been a routine 12-hour journey home.
She is a lawyer practising at the Madhya Pradesh High Court's Indore bench and has also been preparing for civil judge examinations. She was living in a hostel in Indore.
On the morning of August 5, two days before Rakshabandhan, Archana left her Indore hostel with her bag packed with festival gifts and boarded the Narmada Express.
At 10.16 pm that night, Archana called her aunt and said she had reached near Bhopal. This would be her last known communication for nearly two weeks.
When the train pulled into Katni South railway station the next morning, her family stood waiting on the platform but Archana did not come out.
Her last digital trace was a cell tower ping near the Narmada Railway Bridge in Narmadapuram district, a location that later become the epicentre of search operations.
The search for Archana had become a coordinated effort spanning multiple states. Police teams scoured areas from Rani Kamalapati railway station to Itarsi and Katni, analysing CCTV footage from stations and surrounding areas.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


India Today
31 minutes ago
- India Today
Inside Archana Tiwari missing case: Marriage pressure, trip to Nepal and police net
The mysterious missing case of a female lawyer and civil judge aspirant, Archana Tiwari, unravelled on Wednesday when she was traced in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Khiri, nearly two weeks after she disappeared midway through a train Tuesday, she was contacted by her family to say that she was safe, which allowed police to trace her location near the Nepal why did the 22-year-old go missing during her journey to celebrate the Rakshabandhan festival? Primary police investigation has found answers. The police investigation revealed that Archana staged her vanishing act due to immense family pressure to abandon her studies and marry. Her family had arranged a marriage proposal with a Patwari (a local land record officer), and she was reportedly told to give up her career aspirations to prepare for the with the situation, Archana, who is also a student leader and is well-versed in legal matters, devised a meticulous plan to escape.'Archana was engaged to a Patwari (a local land record officer) and was told to quit her studies to prepare for the wedding. She told one Saransh Chopchen, whom she got in touch with while studying at Indore, about this,' Railway Police SP Rahul Lodha August 6, a day before she went missing, Archana met with her friend Saransh, a 26-year-old man, and a driver named Tejinder. The trio, after a meeting at a dhaba in Harda, planned the entire operation. Archana, an advocate, believed that a missing person case registered with the Government Railway Police (GRP) would likely not receive extensive investigation. She and her accomplices believed that by disappearing from a moving train, the case might be dismissed as an accident, allowing them to start a new life with a different who often drove Archana on outstation trips, went with her on the train to Itarsi. Saransh also drove to Itarsi in his car and picked up Archana from to the plan, Tejinder was given all of Archana's clothes and mobile phone so he could throw them near Midghat to mislead the police into thinking she had fallen somewhere in the Midghat forest in Madhya there, Archana travelled with Saransh in his car to Shujalpur but didn't get out of the car. They chose a route without toll taxes because they could be traced via FASTag or CCTV, SP Rahul Lodha Shujalpur, they went to Burhanpur, then Hyderabad, and from there to Jodhpur and Delhi. The final part of their journey led them to Nepal on August 14. In Nepal, Saransh left Archana and returned to started using her mobile less than 10 days before she disappeared, and also did not buy a new phone or SIM card in Madhya their road travel, Archana lay down on the car's seat to avoid being seen on any CCTV had initially planned to stay in Madhya Pradesh and had rented a room in Shujalpur for this purpose. However, as the case received a lot of media attention, she felt it was unsafe to stay there and then went to Hyderabad, police THE CASE WAS SOLVEDDespite the elaborate planning, the police cracked the case through diligent investigative work. A team of 70 people worked on the case for 12-13 days. More than 500 CCTV cameras were team, which included cyber experts, analysed Archana's call detail records (CDR). A key discovery was a particular number that had unusually long call durations. The number belonged to tracing Saransh's movements and questioning him, he confessed to the entire the police caught Saransh and the girl found out, the police contacted her, and she agreed to return, and she also spoke to her family saying she was already on her way back to the Nepal-India TOMAR - ARCHANA LINKRam Tomar, with whom Archana's parents fixed the marriage, knew her from when she was practicing in Jabalpur. He wanted her to come and practice with him in woman, however, was bothered by him, so whenever Tomar booked her a ticket to Gwalior, she never went to to police, Tomar had no role in the "disappearance episode'. 'The woman herself is the mastermind,' the SP said.- EndsTrending Reel


News18
an hour ago
- News18
Madhya Pradesh Lawyer Fakes Disappearance To Avoid Family Pressure For Marriage, Found In UP
Archana Tiwari, a practising lawyer from Madhya Pradesh, was reportedly under intense pressure from her family to marry, prompting her to devise a plan to fake her "disappearance". A lawyer from Madhya Pradesh aspiring to become a civil judge, mysteriously went missing, prompting an intense search effort by the police. However, in a strange turn of events, it turned out that she had faked her own disappearance as part of a meticulous plan to evade her family. Archana Tiwari was 'under intense pressure from her family to abandon her studies and marry a Patwari", according to Railway Superintendent of Police Rahul Kumar Lodha. Amid mounting proposals and emotional strain, she confided in her friend, Saransh, and they hatched a plan to 'disappear'. Their plan reportedly involved an 'accident' on the Narmada Express, where Archana's legal acumen came in handy. '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 during the period, which made it difficult for the police to advance the investigation into Archana's 'investigation". The duo bypassed toll booths and purchased a new mobile mid-journey to avoid detection. Archana also used WhatsApp calls to obscure her trail. As media coverage over her disappearance intensified, Archana and Saransh moved to Hyderabad, then travelled to Kathmandu, Nepal, via Jodhpur and Delhi. She de-boarded at Itarsi railway station and then went to Shujalpur in Shajapur district and lived there for two days. After that, she moved to Hyderabad and then to Jodhpur. Further, she reached New Delhi and then went to Nepal. Archana's bag, which contained Raksha Bandhan gifts, was found at the Umaria station, drawing widespread attention. Her last known communication was a call to her aunt on August 7, after which her phone went silent. How Did Police Locate Her? 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. 'Archana Tiwari made this plan to avoid her marriage. She assumed that if she remained missing for a few days, her family would stop talking about her marriage, and then she would be back to her life again. However, extensive media coverage made her talk to her family and disclose her current location," Lodha informed. Babita Kataria, a woman police officer who recovered Archana Tiwari at the India-Nepal border (Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh), said that she was alone in Nepal. Archana has been handed over to her family. Meanwhile, investigators discovered Archana had been in contact with Ram Tomar, a constable posted at Gwalior's Bhanwarpura police station. He had booked a bus ticket for her from Indore to Gwalior, though she never used it. The constable was detained on August 18 and was under interrogation. Click here to add News18 as your preferred news source on Google. Get breaking news, in-depth analysis, and expert perspectives on everything from politics to crime and society. Stay informed with the latest India news only on News18. Download the News18 App to stay updated! tags : disappearance madhya pradesh view comments First Published: Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Loading comments...


News18
an hour ago
- News18
US-led coalition captures senior Islamic State member in Syria
Agency: Beirut, Aug 20 (AP) A US-led coalition captured a senior member of the Islamic State group in northwest Syria on Wednesday, state media and a war monitor reported. It was not immediately clear if the man is the IS supreme leader. The US military did not respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press. The operation that included landing troops from helicopters occurred before dawn in Atmeh town near the Turkish border, and an IS commander known as Abu Hafs al-Qurayshi, an Iraqi citizen, was taken away while another Iraqi citizen was killed, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Observatory said the man captured had a French-speaking woman with him, and it was not immediately clear if she was taken by the US force or by Syrian security forces, who later cordoned the area. Two years ago, IS announced that a man called Abu Hafs al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi was named as its new leader after Turkish authorities killed his predecessor. Syrian state TV on Wednesday quoted an unnamed security official as saying the Iraqi man targeted in the operation is known as Ali, adding that his real name is Salah Noman. It said Noman was living in an apartment with his wife, son and mother. It said he was killed in the raid. There was no immediate clarification for the difference in names reported by state media and the war monitor. IS broke away from al-Qaida more than a decade ago and attracted supporters from around the world after it declared a so-called caliphate in 2014 in large parts of Syria and Iraq. Despite its defeat in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later, IS militants still carry out deadly attacks in both countries and elsewhere. Al-Qurayshi is not the real name of IS leaders but comes from Quraish, the name of the tribe to which Islam's Prophet Muhammad belonged. IS claims its leaders hail from the tribe, and 'al-Qurayshi" is part of their nom de guerre. (AP) NPK NPK view comments First Published: August 20, 2025, 18:30 IST Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Loading comments...