Lawyer, 27, faked disappearance to escape marriage, traced to Nepal

BHOPAL: A 27-year-old MP lawyer and civil judge aspirant's desperation to escape family pressure to get married led her to meticulously plan a cross-border escape from Itarsi to Nepal's Kathmandu, dodging CCTVs, toll booths and police checkpoints to ensure she didn't leave any trail leading to the life of obscurity she desired.

The 13-day search for Archana Tiwari - involving multiple teams from police, GRP and NDRF - culminated Wednesday in Nepal authorities confirming that an Indian woman found living incognito in Kathmandu matched the profile of the young lawyer reported missing by her family after boarding the Indore-Katni Narmada Express on Aug 7.

Investigators said her circuitous escape route took her from Itarsi, where she got off the train with an acquaintance, to Kathmandu via Shujalpur, Indore, Hyderabad, Jodhpur, Delhi and then the UP-Nepal border.

Her discarded bag had been found in the B3 coach of the train, leading her brother to file a complaint with GRP Katni on Aug 8, the day after Rakshabandhan.

Police said they scanned footage from over 500 CCTV cameras, deployed NDRF personnel to scour a forested patch from Barkheda to Budni, and sent divers to search a 32-km stretch of the Narmada. The breakthrough came when investigators pored through her call records. "The name Saransh Jokchand popped up during the scan. Then one thing led to another," an officer said. Investigators found out that Saransh travelled with Archana by the Narmada Express and carried clothes for her to change into before getting into a pre-arranged taxi.

Tejinder Singh helped the lawyer avoid being captured on surveillance cameras as he was familiar with areas of the railway station outside CCTV coverage. Archana had stopped using her mobile phones before her disappearing act, police said. She handed one of her phones to Tejinder, instructing him to activate it near Midghat and then discard it.

Saransh's interrogation gave police enough clues to reconstruct her escape route. "Being a lawyer, she knew that a missing person case lodged with GRP usually doesn't get pursued aggressively. She was probably convinced the trail would go cold, little knowing that the case would get the media attention it did," SP (railways) Rahul Lodha said.

Police found out Archana had turned down at least five marriage proposals in recent months. Her family's decision to get her married to a revenue official was purportedly the last straw.


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