MP woman lawyer faked own disappearance to evade marriage fixed by parents: Police

Madhya Pradesh-based woman lawyer Archana Tiwari, who was traced in Uttar Pradesh after being reported missing nearly two weeks ago, faked her own disappearance in order to evade her marriage that her parents had fixed, police have found.

In order to remain untraceable, she also threw her mobile phone in a jungle area near Itarsi in the state, and was assisted by her two male friends, they said.

Tiwari, a resident of Katni in Madhya Pradesh, was traced in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Khiri town on Nepal border on Tuesday.

The civil judge aspirant was heading to her home in Katni from Indore on the intervening nights of August 7-8 for Raksha Bandhan festival, but did not reach her destination and was missing since then.

Talking to reporters, Superintendent of Police of the Government Railway Police (GRP) Rahul Kumar Lodha said Tiwari's family had arranged her marriage with a 'patwari' (revenue official) and was pressuring her to quit her studies and marry him. But Tiwari, 29, was happy not with her proposed marriage and hence plotted her own disappearance in order to evade it.

She left Indore for Katni on the intervening night of August 7 and 8 by Narmada Express a day before the Raksha Bandhan festival, but did not reach her destination following which her family lodged a missing person complaint at the Rani Kamlapati Government Railway Police (GRP) police station in Bhopal.

Lodha said Tiwari had befriended Saransh, a Shujalpur-based youth, in Indore and both of them were travelling on the same train that day.

Tiwari along with Saransh and another youth named Tejendra cooked up a story of her going untraceable, he said.

Earlier, Tiwari planned to run away. However, later she cooked up the story of her own disappearance thinking that GRP would not pay much attention to it.

According to Lodha, Tejendra gave Tiwari information about those places in Itarsi station where there were no CCTVs.

Tejendra also provided clothes to Tiwari on board the train at Narmadapuram and helped her get out of Itarsi station. Tiwari even threw her mobile phone in a forest area near Itarsi and travelled with Saransh in a car so that her location could not be traced, he said.

The same night, the Delhi police picked up Tejendra in some other case, following which the layers of the lawyer's disappearance started coming to light, he said.

He said that the GRP team went to Delhi and interrogated Tejendra in jail, following which they caught Saransh. Tiwari was called from Kathmandu via Saransh and she was then brought to Bhopal via Delhi.

Tiwari has denied having a love affair with Saransh, according to him.

Tiwari, who was preparing for the Civil Judge's exam along with practising law at the Indore bench of the MP High Court, left for Katni on August 7 by Narmada Express train. Her last 'location' was found to be Rani Kamlapati station of Bhopal, after which her family members lodged a missing person's case in Rani Kamlapati GRP police station.

In order to trace her, the police conducted a thorough investigation in the areas from Rani Kamlapati railway station to Itarsi and Katni, and examined the CCTV cameras installed in the station and the surrounding areas.