Pune | The investigation into the murder of 25-year-old realtor Ketan Agarwal has intensified after police discovered that the accused, Siya Goyal and Chetan Chaudhary, systematically wiped their entire phone chat history and recycle bins before and after the crime, officials said on Friday.
The mobile instruments have been sent to a forensic laboratory to retrieve the logs of deleted chats, they said.
“During our investigation, it was revealed that both the accused deleted their chats before June 18 and after the Lohagad incident from their phones. The chats were deleted from the recycle bins of their respective phones,” said a police officer, who is a part of an investigation team.
Investigations by the Pune Rural Police indicated that Goyal (20) and her lover Chaudhary (22) had been in constant contact for nearly six months before the incident, logging an extraordinary 2,004 phone calls totalling 238 hours of conversation.
On the day of the crime, the duo allegedly met at a cafe to finalise the murder plot, mapping out the precise spot at Lohagad Fort in Maval taluka where Agarwal would be pushed.
Gajanan Tonpe, Deputy Superintendent of Police for the Lonavala division, said that investigators have firmly established the active roles of both suspects. Police have also summoned Goyal’s brother and are calling in other relatives and friends for questioning.
“We summoned Siya’s brother for the questioning, and other members and friends will also be summoned. So far, the roles of both Siya and Chetan have been established in the alleged murder of Ketan,” Tonpe said.
While Chaudhary initially claimed he was not at the exact location of the cliff, police officials noticed his narrative quickly fell apart during interrogation, leading both suspects to confess.
“It was evident that he was lying,” another police official said, adding that both of them finally admitted to their roles and narrated the entire sequence of events.
Police claimed that according to the final plan, Goyal gave a pre-decided signal by sitting down, prompting Chaudhary to approach from behind and push an unsuspecting Agarwal into the gorge.
The gravity of the crime has drawn immediate intervention from the state government, with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who met with the victim’s father Vishal Agarwal in Pune. He assured the family of total support.
The state has officially accepted the family’s demands to try the case in a fast-track court and has appointed Ujjwal Nikam as the special public prosecutor for the case.
Later, talking to reporters, the chief minister said the Lohagad Fort incident reflected a disturbing social trend that required deeper introspection.
“It is an extremely shocking and incomprehensible incident. As a society, we need to reflect on why educated young men and women from good families develop such criminal intent and a desire for revenge. This is not merely a criminal issue; it also has a social angle,” he said.
Society must create a strong support system to ensure such vengeful thinking does not develop among young people. Overall, this is an extremely shocking incident, Fadnavis added.
“We met Fadnavis ji and sought a speedy trial in the case. We also sought that the truth should be unravelled, and if there are any other people involved, they should also be booked. All those responsible for the murder of my son should get severe punishment,” said Vishal Agarwal.
He also responded to questions about media reports claiming that Goyal disliked his son because of his wig, asking, “...if she had any issues, she should have said no. What was the need to kill my son?”
He said it was true that his son wore a small patch of wig, insisting that Goyal and her family had been told about it before their engagement.
According to police, Goyal and Agarwal were scheduled to get married in November, but she did not want to marry him. Siya and Chetan allegedly hatched a conspiracy to eliminate Ketan and executed the plan.
Goyal’s mother has claimed that her daughter was reluctant to visit Lohagad Fort on June 18, but Agarwal and his mother persuaded her to make the trip.
“On the evening of June 17, Siya and Ketan had a video call, during which Ketan asked her to accompany him to Lohagad. During the call, Ketan’s mother also spoke to Siya and urged her to join him. Siya told her that she did not want to go trekking, as there was a function scheduled for the following day and she wanted to rest,” her mother claimed.
Speaking to reporters, Goyal’s father dismissed reports that the family had booked a palace in Udaipur for the wedding and arranged a chartered aircraft.
“It is true that the wedding was to take place in Udaipur. The hotel charged around Rs 81,000 per couple per day, and we had booked 70 rooms. Our total expenditure was not more than Rs 3 crore,” he said.
