Ketan Agarwal Murder Police Reverse Reconstruction Siya Goyal Lohagad Fort

Even as the Pune Rural Police’s on-ground investigation into the alleged murder of Ketan Agarwal is nearing completion, investigators are now focusing on corroborating the physical evidence with digital leads, including CCTV footage and mobile phone records.

Officials said they are reconstructing the sequence of events in reverse, working backwards from the time of the murder to establish the movements and actions of the accused in the days leading up to the crime.

The Pune Rural police arrested Ketan’s (26) fiancee Siya Goyal (20) and her friend Chetan Chaudhary (22) on June 23 for allegedly hatching a conspiracy to kill Ketan by pushing him from the cliff of Lohagad fort.

According to the police, Siya got engaged to Ketan on February 19 and the two were scheduled to marry later in the year. Siya was already in a relationship with Chetan since October last year and did not want to get married to Ketan, police said.

Ketan’s death, which was initially thought be an accidental fall from a cliff of the historic hill fort Lohagad, turned out to be a premeditated murder, the Pune Rural police said.

After being in police custody for 10 days, a court has remanded Siya and Chetan to judicial custody for 14 days for which the two are currently lodged in prison.

An officer who is part of the probe team said, “Our field work, on-ground investigation is nearing conclusion. We have also gathered significant electronic and digital leads about the case. The task at hand now is to corroborate the physical evidence with digital leads, including CCTV footage and cell phone data. The cell phone data is in large quantities and its logical sorting is always an important task. We are reconstructing the sequence of events in reverse, working backwards from the time of the murder to establish the movements and actions of the accused in the days leading up to the crime.”

Another officer said, “Digital evidence by itself rarely tells the complete story. Every CCTV timestamp, mobile tower location, call detail record, handset location, internet activity and movement pattern has to be matched with statements of the accused and witnesses, physical evidence and the scene of crime. We are reconstructing the case in reverse — starting from the last confirmed event, the murder, and then working backwards hour by hour and day by day to establish where each accused was, how they travelled and what actions they took in the days leading up to the offence.”

Days before they allegedly pushed Ketan off the cliff of the Lohagad Fort, Siya and Chetan conducted practice on how they will execute their plan of murder, police claimed.

Police said that this rehearsal was conducted in an open space next to a club lounge in Pune’s Lulla Nagar area. A police team last week took Siya to this location for investigation. Police have conducted crime scene recreation with both Siya and Chetan separately at Lohagad fort. According to the officers investigating the case, Siya had earlier derailed the couple’s planned pre-wedding shoot in Bali by stealing Ketan’s passport and later discarding it in the washroom of a foodmall on the Pune-Mumbai Expressway.

According to police, she had taken Ketan to Lohagad Fort on May 31 and June 14 before coming again on June 18 when she and Chetan alegedly executed the murder by pushing Ketan off the western cliff. Investigators have also said that Siya had attempted to persuade Ketan to visit the fort on June 4, but the trip was called off after his family objected.

Sushant Kulkarni is a Special Correspondent with The Indian Express in Pune with 12+ years of experience covering issues related to Crime, Defence, Internal Security and Courts. He has been associated with the Indian Express since July 2010. Sushant has extensively reported on law and order issues of Pune and surrounding area, Cyber crime, narcotics trade and terrorism. His coverage in the Defence beat includes operational aspects of the three services, the defence research and development and issues related to key defence establishments. He has covered several sensitive cases in the courts at Pune. Sushant is an avid photographer, plays harmonica and loves cooking. ... Read More