Ketan Agarwal Death Case: Pune Court Sends Fiancée, Her Friend To 7-Day Police Custody

A court in Pune on Tuesday remanded a 22-year-old woman and her friend to police custody till June 29 in connection with the alleged murder of her fiancé, whose death at Lohagad Fort last week was initially reported as an accidental fall during a trek.

The accused, Siya Goyal and Chetan Chaudhary, were produced before a magistrate after being arrested by Pune Rural Police for the alleged murder of 26-year-old Ketan Agarwal, a real-estate businessman from Pimpri-Chinchwad.

Police have alleged that the duo conspired to kill Agarwal and pushed him into a deep gorge at the historic hill fort near Lonavala on June 18.

According to investigators, Agarwal and Goyal had got engaged earlier this year and were scheduled to marry in the coming months. During the investigation, police allegedly discovered that Goyal and Chaudhary had been in a relationship for several months and considered Agarwal an obstacle to their future together.

The case came to light after Goyal informed authorities that Agarwal had slipped and fallen from Lohagad Fort while the couple was visiting the tourist destination. An accidental death case was initially registered. However, the circumstances surrounding the incident and objections raised by Agarwal's family prompted a deeper probe.

Police officials said several aspects of the woman's version appeared inconsistent. Investigators subsequently examined technical evidence, witness statements and information gathered during the inquiry, which allegedly pointed towards a pre-planned conspiracy. Based on these findings, the police converted the case into a murder investigation and arrested the two accused.

Senior police officers have claimed that the investigation revealed the fatal incident was not an isolated act but the culmination of earlier attempts to eliminate Agarwal. According to police, one such attempt allegedly took place at the same fort in late May, when Agarwal narrowly escaped after falling near a cliff edge. Investigators suspect that subsequent efforts were also made before the alleged conspiracy was finally executed on June 18.

Police further allege that Agarwal was pushed into a gorge approximately 300 to 400 feet deep while posing for photographs at the fort. He sustained fatal injuries in the fall. What initially appeared to be a trekking mishap later emerged as a suspected case of murder after investigators pieced together the sequence of events leading up to his death.

During the remand proceedings, the prosecution sought custodial interrogation of the accused, arguing that investigators needed time to reconstruct the alleged conspiracy, recover digital evidence and examine communications between the two accused. Court accepted the request and granted police custody till June 29.

The victim's family has maintained that Agarwal, an experienced trekker, was unlikely to have accidentally slipped from the fort and had consistently demanded a thorough investigation.

Members of Agarwal's family have also questioned the motive behind the alleged crime, arguing that if Goyal did not wish to continue with the relationship, she could have simply called off the engagement. Their statements formed part of the broader inquiry that eventually led police to scrutinise the circumstances of the death more closely.

Police officials have said the investigation remains underway and that further evidence is being collected to establish the full sequence of events leading to Agarwal's death.

[Inputs: ANI]