BHOPAL: Unwilling to buckle under family pressure to marry the man of their choice, a Madhya Pradesh-based young advocate, Archana Tiwari, who aspired to become a civil judge, masterminded her own disappearance from on board a train on August 7.
12 days after she disappeared and went underground in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu with the help of a close friend, Saransh Jokchand, who wanted to make a big in drone business, and Saransh's alleged fraudster friend Tejindar Singh, the 29-year-old advocate has been found near the Indo-Nepal border in UP's Lakhimpur district and brought to Bhopal on Wednesday.
On August 7, the young advocate, who was travelling from her workplace in Indore to home city Katni for Raksha Bandhan in the B3 coach of the 18233 Indore-Bilaspur Narmada Express train didn’t reach home on August 8, after which a missing persons complaint was filed by her family at the government railway police (GRP-Katni). The investigation was transferred the next day to the GRP-Rani Kamlapati station of Bhopal.
With Archana's bag and some other things being found on her train's seat, the GRP police first started working on the theory of the woman having fallen from the train, despite its chances being low in the crowded AC-3 compartment.
"More than 2000 CCTV footage from over 500 cameras were examined in detail between Indore and Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh). Our teams comprising more than 70 personnel were deployed in the dense forest areas in central MP, where using drones and state forest department staff, extensive combing was done," police superintendent (GRP-Bhopal) Rahul Kumar Lodha said in Bhopal on Wednesday
"An SDERF team searched in an area of around 32 km in river Narmada, but found nothing incriminating, after which possibility of a mishap with Archana was ruled out. It consequently broadened the purview of our investigations, focussing more on digital and electronic methodology-based investigations,” he said.
Based on the call detail record (CDR) and Internet Protocol Detail Record (IDPR), it was found that Archana had been in contact with an Indore-based drone business startup operator Saransh Jokchand, since January. Related investigations also revealed that she and Saransh were in touch with one Tejindar Singh (who was residing in Itarsi-Narmadapuram), possibly via Saransh.
But, before Tejindar could be grilled in detail by the GRP-Bhopal, a team of Delhi police arrested him from Itarsi in connection with a fraud case.
"Connecting the dots in the matter pertaining to the sensational disappearance, the GRP-Bhopal reached Delhi and grilled Tejinder in Delhi police custody, where he spilled the beans and admitted to his role in first embarking the Narmada Express train from Narmadapuram railway station on August 7 as planned by Archana and Saransh and then helping the young advocate deboard the train at Itarsi railway station," Lodha said. "Knowing well about the nook and cranny of Itarsi railway station, Tejindar helped Archana deboard the train and get out of the station through blind spots, which weren’t within the peripheral vision of the CCTV cameras," he added.
Subsequent investigations revealed that after detraining at Itarsi, Archana along with Saransh, went by road to his hometown Shujalpur, in Shajapur district in a car. Archana and Saransh then returned to Indore, but realizing that the matter was becoming big in the media, they decided to get out of MP.
They went to southwestern MP's Burhanpur district and then reached Hyderabad, where they stayed for two days. But with the matter becoming bigger every passing day, it was decided that Archana would go to Nepal and get underground in Kathmandu with the help of Saransh’s business client.
The duo – Archana and Saransh – travelled from Hyderabad to Jodhpur to Delhi and then entered Nepal via road based on Saransh’s ID on August 14. In Nepal, the young advocate planned to live for a few months as Sapna (her other name) and then return to pursue her preparations for the judicial services exam.
Though, based on CDRs, Saransh had been questioned initially by the cops, the questioning of Tejinder in Delhi police’s custody in the national capital, actually helped the GRP-Bhopal in establishing Saransh’s actual role in the case.
Saransh was picked up for questioning again on August 17, after which he narrated the entire saga about Archana's mysterious disappearance for staying away from marriage and focusing on judicial services exams preparations.
It was Saransh who finally helped police in connecting Archana over phone in Nepal and convinced her to fly back from Kathmandu to Dhangadhi in Nepal and then reach the Indo-Nepal border in UP's Lakhimpur Kheri district on Tuesday. She was brought by the GRP-Bhopal team to MP capital on Wednesday morning by flight.
"Questioning of Archana (a former student leader), her close friend Saransh and Tejindar revealed that she didn’t want to get married with a Patwari (revenue department staff) on family’s wishes and wanted instead to focus on preparations to achieve her ultimate goal of becoming a civil judge. It was owing to it only that she masterminded the entire mysterious disappearance, believing that in many cases of missing persons complaints, the victim often remained untraced," Lodha said. "She left her bag and some other belongings on the train seat during the journey to home city Katni and then threw her mobile phone in the jungles of Midghat in central MP to create an impression that she fell from the train and will never be traced,” Lodha said.
"While entire plot was masterminded by Archana, the travel plans and other aspects were finalized by Saransh and Tejindar. Though we’ve spent 10-12 days with more than 70 cops working round the clock in the sensational case, Archana being a major, nothing untoward has happened to her, no criminal case can be made against her. We will still seek additional legal opinion to further decide in the matter,” Lodha maintained.
Importantly, investigations suggest that Archana had planned her August 7 mysterious disappearance from the train on August 5, along with Saransh and Tejindar at a dhaba in central MP’s Harda district, where she had gone for arguing a legal case.
Out of the two SIM cards being used by her, she shut one of her SIM cards much before the August 7 rail journey and in the middle of the train journey, threw her cell-phone in the Midghat jungles of central MP to give credence to her missing person plot.
Saransh, on the other hand, kept his cell phone on aeroplane mode right since returning to Indore with Archana from Shujalpur on August 9. He then purchased a new phone, got a new number in his labourer father’s name and used it till he left Archana in Nepal and returned to Indore on August 15, just to ensure that the last location of his original phone remained in Indore only.