Engaged in February, dead by June: Inside Pune realtor Ketan Agarwal's murder that shocked India

The murder plot for businessman Ketan Agarwal by his fiancée Siya Goyal and her lover Chetan Chaudhary reportedly originated during a visit to Lohagad Fort on May 31.

26-year-old Ketan, who died while on a trek on June 18, was allegedly pushed into the gorge by Siya (20) and Chetan (22), police said on Tuesday. The incident was initially registered as an accidental death, with Siya informing the victim's family that he had slipped during the trek.

Siya and Ketan got engaged in February and were scheduled to get married in a grand wedding ceremony at Udaipur in November, for which a palace had been booked.

Ruled out as accident initially

Ketan and Siya were visiting Lohagad Fort near Lonavala to celebrate her 20th birthday. She initially told the police that Ketan had slipped while taking photographs near the fort and fallen into a valley.

However, Ketan's family was not convinced and said that he was an experienced trekker who knew the terrain well and would not have lost balance so easily at that spot.

Here's all we know about the Pune trekking murder case so far:

• Ketan's uncle told PTI that Siya had earlier expressed reservations about the marriage and had once asked whether the wedding could be postponed by a year.
• Siya reportedly wanted more time for herself and was reluctant to proceed with the proposed marriage despite her family's pressure, police sources told ANI.
• “The accused was apparently not mentally prepared for marriage and was under pressure from her family to accept the proposal,” a senior police official told ANI.
• Chetan told police that Siya did not want to walk away from her engagement with Ketan and elope with her lover in fear of family humiliation, so she instead chose to kill her fiancé.
• “According to him, Siya was not in favour of calling off the engagement and eloping with Chetan, as she thought doing so would bring disrespect to her family,” police sources told PTI.

• According to the analysis of digital and circumstantial evidence, the police told ANI that investigators are examining multiple angles, including motive and an alleged conspiracy.
• The investigators found that Siya allegedly first conceived the idea of killing Ketan after observing him sitting near the edge of the structure during their first fort visit on May 31.
• Police said Siya and Chetan wanted to "eliminate" Ketan before she and the businessman were scheduled to leave for Bali for a pre-wedding photoshoot. That trip did not materialise after Ketan's passport reportedly mysteriously went missing before the trip.
• The first attempt at Ketan's life was reportedly made on June 14, when Siya reportedly tried to push Ketan off the Lohagad fort. However, he managed to hold on to a bush. When Ketan wondered why he had been pushed, she raised a false alarm about a snake and tried to make it appear that she had protected him, the officer said.
• Both Siya and Chetan are currently in seven-day police custody till June 29.

Chetan Chaudhary ‘being falsely framed’

Babulal Chaudhary, the father of the accused, Chetan Chaudhary, insisted that his son had no role in the killing of Ketan Agarwal.

Chetan was identified as a co-accused of Ketan's murder because of CCTV footage from the fort showing a man wearing a hoodie despite the temperature being around 33 degrees Celsius.

Speaking to ANI, Babulal claimed his son is being made a scapegoat in a case. “We have never seen the girl in question and know absolutely nothing about her,” he said, referring to Siya. "In fact, I only found out her name, Siya, yesterday. He is being falsely framed and has no involvement in this matter."

Babulal stated that Chetan had simply informed his parents he was heading out for a meeting, offering no details about his destination or companions.

Chetan maintained that he was a bystander to the incident. “He clearly told us that he did not push the boy and was standing far away. The girl was the one standing right there when the boy fell,” he claimed.

Babulal added that while he does not know if Siya pushed Ketan, his son was “standing a little further back”.

Babulal further alleged that the family had received conflicting signals from local law enforcement regarding the nature of the case. "The police have informed us that this is a minor issue and is actually a case of fraud," he asserted. "They assured us they would release the child to us within two hours."