Watch: A day before Lohagad Fort push, Siya Goyal met lover at Pune cafe to ‘plan’ fiancée Ketan Agarwal’s murder | Pune News
PUNE: The day before Pune real estate director Ketan Agarwal was pushed to his death from Lohagad Fort, his fiancée Siya Goyal and her lover Chetan Chaudhary sat together at a cafe and finalised the plan — including zeroing in on the exact spot at the fort from where they would push him, police said Wednesday.CCTV footage from the cafe shows the two entering at around 4.35 pm on June 17 and leaving at approximately 5.30 pm.During that roughly one-hour meeting, police said, Siya briefed Chaudhary about the plan and the two worked out the details of the killing.The next morning, Ketan was dead.The cafe, the plan, the fortInvestigators said the cafe meeting was not a spontaneous outing but a final operational briefing. Siya had already visited Lohagad Fort with Ketan on May 31, during which, police allege, she first conceived the idea of pushing him after seeing him seated near the cliff edge. By June 17, the plan had a location, a method and a co-conspirator waiting in position.On June 18 — a day before Siya’s birthday — she insisted Ketan accompany her on a trek to Lohagad. The two left Gahunje around 8.30 am. Chaudhary, meanwhile, rode to the fort on a two-wheeler separately, arriving before the couple and telling a security guard he had come for exercise. He left his own phone at his Market Yard shop and carried an employee’s device instead to avoid digital detection.Police said the spot chosen for the murder was deliberate — a secluded stretch of the fort that sees significantly fewer visitors between Monday and Wednesday. Investigators suspect the two had conducted reconnaissance visits to the location in advance.CCTV footage from the fort’s ticket counter captured Ketan and Siya walking together, with a figure trailing a few metres behind — a man in shorts and a hoodie, the front pulled low to obscure his face, headphones worn over it. At one point in the footage, Siya glances back, and simultaneously the hooded figure sits down abruptly.“We checked the temperature for that time and found it was 33 degrees Celsius. Why would anyone wear a hoodie in that heat?” a police official said. The figure was later identified as Chaudhary through a comparison of the CCTV imagery with photographs from his social media profiles.At the cliff edge, police said, both Siya and Chaudhary pushed Ketan into the 400-foot gorge.
The cover-upIn the hours that followed, Siya performed the role of grieving fiancée. She alerted Ketan’s family and local residents, maintaining he had slipped — first while posing for a photograph, then, in a contradictory version, while handing her a water bottle. Police noted there were no photographs from that day on her phone at all.On her birthday the next day, June 19, she posted an emotional tribute to Ketan on social media.Ketan’s family, however, refused to accept the accident theory. He was an experienced trekker, they told police, and could not have simply slipped. A formal complaint was lodged.2,004 calls, 238 hoursWhat investigators found when they pulled Siya’s call records was a relationship conducted in plain sight. Between January 1 and June 18, Siya and Chaudhary exchanged 2,004 phone calls totalling 238 hours — some conversations lasting two to three hours at a stretch.The two had first met at a Diwali party the previous year and had been in a relationship for months, even as Siya remained engaged to Ketan.Police said Siya viewed Ketan as an obstacle and was unwilling to marry him — but equally unwilling to call off the engagement openly, fearing it would bring disrespect to her family.When investigators asked Chaudhary during interrogation why the two had not simply eloped, he said Siya was not in favour of that either.Killing Ketan was, in their calculation, the only way out.Three failed attemptsJune 18 was not the first time they had tried.The first attempt came on May 31, when Siya took Ketan to Lohagad and allegedly tried to push him off the cliff. He grabbed a bush and saved himself. Siya then raised an alarm about a snake and embraced him, framing the shove as an act of protection.A second attempt was planned for June 4, but Ketan’s mother refused to let him go back to the fort.In between, Siya also sabotaged a planned pre-wedding photoshoot in Bali. The group — Siya, her brother, Ketan and his sister — were travelling to Mumbai airport with all four passports in a single pouch. At a food mall near the Khalapur toll plaza, Siya slipped back to the car alone. At the airport, Ketan’s passport was missing.Police later confirmed she had torn it and disposed of it in a women’s washroom, telling investigators that Chaudhary had opposed the Bali trip.A third attempt on June 14 was aborted — Siya brought Ketan back to Lohagad but called it off because of heavy footfall on a Sunday.Four days later, on June 18, they succeeded.Family’s grief, political falloutKetan’s father Vishal Agarwal said his family had known the Goyals for 35 to 40 years and had initially hesitated over the match because of Siya’s young age, agreeing only after her family pushed for it. “When the police came with my son’s body, Siya did not show any reaction. There was no sadness on her face,” he said.His mother has demanded the death penalty. His father has called for a fast-track trial and said he believes others may have been involved.The case has since reached the Maharashtra assembly, where presiding officer Raju Khare on Thursday directed the government to set up a Special Investigation Team. NCP member Sunil Shelke also demanded that Siya’s family be named accused, alleging they had concealed her relationship with Chaudhary from the Agarwals.Siya and Chaudhary, both arrested and charged with murder and criminal conspiracy under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, remain in police custody until June 29.
