According to Katni Railway Police Sub-Inspector Anil Maravi, Archana had been living in Indore to prepare for the civil judge exam and was traveling home to Katni. She boarded the B-3 coach of the train on the morning of August 7, speaking to her family by phone at around 10:15 a.m. while the train was near Bhopal. Soon after, her phone was switched off, and she could not be reached again.
When the train reached Katni station, Archana did not disembark as expected. Alarmed, her family contacted relatives in Umaria, the next stop on the route. Upon arrival there, the relatives entered her coach and found her bag, but there was no sign of her.
Preliminary investigations suggest that Archana was seen at Rani Kamlapati station in Bhopal, but her whereabouts after that remain unknown. Co-passengers reported no sighting of her on the train beyond Bhopal, raising questions about whether she may have disembarked or been forced to leave before reaching her destination.
The Katni railway police have registered a missing person case and are reviewing CCTV footage from stations along the route. Authorities are also attempting to trace her movements through mobile phone location data, though the device has remained switched off since shortly after her last call.
The case has unsettled the community, not only because of Archana’s academic background but also due to the sudden and unexplained nature of her disappearance. With no ransom calls, eyewitness accounts, or confirmed sightings, both investigators and her family are facing a disturbing mystery.
At present, search efforts are underway across multiple districts in Madhya Pradesh. Police are also appealing to the public for any information that might help locate Archana, whose sudden vanishing has cast a shadow over what was meant to be a routine journey home.
