A Maharashtra court has granted the Pune Rural Police an additional five days of custody for Siya Goyal and Chetan Babulal Chaudhary. The two are accused of murdering 26-year-old real estate executive Ketan Agarwal at Lohagad Fort on June 18. The police sought the extension citing incomplete aspects of the investigation, including recreating the crime scene, tracing Chetan’s movements post-incident, analyzing phone conversations after the murder, and recovering evidence related to Ketan’s passport destruction.
Investigators revealed that Siya allegedly destroyed Ketan’s passport by tearing and burning it during a stop at a food mall while the family was en route to Mumbai airport for a pre-wedding trip to Bali. The Bali trip was canceled after Ketan discovered his missing passport at the airport. Police suspect the passport was intentionally removed to prevent the couple from traveling together. Earlier, the driver who transported the group claimed that Siya had returned to the parked vehicle alone during the journey, taking some items from inside.
Furthermore, the police reconstructed the alleged events at Lohagad Fort on June 28 using a dummy, temporarily closing the fort to the public for an uninterrupted exercise. Initially believed to have died in an accidental fall, it was later discovered that Ketan was pushed from the cliff, allegedly by Siya and Chetan, who were reportedly romantically involved and viewed Ketan as an obstacle. The police investigation revealed that the accused had exchanged over 2,000 phone calls in six months, spending nearly 238 hours conversing, which authorities suspect were part of a planned conspiracy leading to the murder.
The investigation also uncovered that Siya allegedly made a previous attempt on Ketan’s life days before the fatal incident. During an earlier visit to Lohagad Fort, she purportedly tried to push him off a cliff, but he survived by holding onto a bush. Siya reportedly claimed she was trying to save him after spotting a snake.
