The 3-year reprieve: Inside the cold-blooded plot and ‘signal’ that led to Ketan Agarwal’s death | India, -Maharashtra News

Pune murder case: In a crucial development in the Lohagad Fort murder case, the prime accused Siya Goyal is understood to have confessed to the police in her interrogation that she had plotted the murder of her fiance, Ketan Agarwal, in order to delay the planned arranged marriage and secure extra time.

According to investigations, by murdering Agarwal, Goyal believed she would get at least three more years of breathing space before her family forces her into the marriage. Besides, it is also being probed that the other co-accused and her partner, Chetan Chaudhary, too had asked for two to three years to settle on his own before he married her. In fear of extreme shame and repercussions on the part of her family members if she refused, Goyal and Chaudhary decided to opt for murder instead.

A new lead found in the police investigation is the revelation that Goyal and Chaudhary took a trip to Udaipur, Rajasthan, in the month of January, which is weeks prior to their engagement in February.

The two were found to have stayed in Rajasthan for five days as part of a group travel tour along with their friends. Investigators highlight that Chaudhary hails from Rajasthan originally.

Currently, the Pune Police are trying to check the digital footprint of the accused along with the travel record of those five days to see if they actually created a plan for the murder during that trip. It will be established if the trip was specifically done to synchronize their plans prior to joining the formal alliance with Goyal.

This deadly incident took place on 18th of June, 2026. The 26-year-old real estate businessman named Ketan Agarwal had gone trekking to Lohagad Fort along with his fiancé, Goyal, in Pune.

As per the investigation of the crime site by the Police:

• The plan: Chaudhary had come to the fort alone and followed the couple as per the plan.
• The signal: After reaching a private place close to a steep cliff, Goyal is said to sit down, which was a visual cue or ‘signal’ for Chaudhary.
• The push: In response to the signal given, Chaudhary caught Agarwal off guard and pushed him into the deep gorge, where Agarwal met his immediate death.

Even though initial investigations classified the death as a fatal trekking accident, forensic analysis and intelligence information soon transformed the nature of the crime from one of accident to murder and the arrest of both the suspects followed soon after.

The present investigation has taken a turn towards the retrieval of sanitized electronic evidence. Both suspects, prior to their arrest, are reported to have sanitized their WhatsApp conversations and call detail history and cleaned up their recycle bins on the mobile phone.

Both the mobile phones are sent to the State Cyber Forensic Laboratory for digital forensics. The investigators are very hopeful that the retrieved messages and call detail records (CDRs) will form an ironclad timeline and reveal any motive other than just the postponement of the marriage.

As the judicial process continues, both accused remain innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.