A 25-year-old belonging to a prominent real-estate family, who was earlier suspected to have fallen to his death at the Lohagad Fort near Pune while taking a photograph, was killed by his 20-year-old fiancee and her friend, police said.
Five days after Ketan Agarwal’s death, the Pune Rural Police Tuesday arrested Siya Praveen Goyal and Chetan Babulal Chaudhary, 22, on the charge of killing Agarwal by pushing him off the cliff. The two had confessed to killing Agarwal, police said, and are probing if it was their fourth attempt to kill the 25-year-old.
Agarwal, the son of real-estate businessman Vishal Agarwal and a director in the family-run firm, was killed on June 18 morning while on a visit to Lohagad Fort, about 50 km from Pune, to celebrate Goyal’s birthday that falls on June 19.
The two got engaged in February and were to have a destination wedding in Rajasthan later this year, for which a palace and two special flights for guests had been booked. Police are also probing the circumstances behind the cancellation of a pre-wedding shoot in Bali, Indonesia, earlier this month.
Goyal called up Agarwal’s family telling them he had slipped while they were trekking at the fort, falling off a 350-ft cliff into a gorge while trying to click photographs. His body was recovered, and a case of accidental death registered.
Superintendent of Police, Pune Rural, Sandeep Singh Gill said that while probing the death, they got several leads as well as inputs from Agarwal’s family that led them to suspect foul play. “The death was also suspicious as Agarwal was a regular trekker… We probed the information we had received and cross-referenced it with technical leads. We found that relations between Goyal and Agarwal had soured, and they had been fighting.”
Gill said Goyal was in a relationship with Chaudhary for over a year, and didn’t want to get married to Agarwal. “That is why she conspired with Chaudhary,” the SP said, adding that the latter was already at the fort and followed Goyal and Agarwal to the top of the cliff. “Goyal and Chaudhary then pushed Agarwal off the cliff. After establishing the sequence of events, we detained and questioned the two. They confessed to the murder and were subsequently arrested,” Gill said, adding that the probe was conducted jointly by the Lonavala Rural Police Station and Local Crime Branch.
After the incident, Goyal shared posts on social media remembering Agarwal and mourning his death, and police believe she did so to mislead the probe.
A Commerce student at a Pune college, Goyal had recently started a bakery business. Chaudhary is enrolled for a BBA course. While her family has a spice and dry fruits business in Pune’s trading hub of Market Yard, his family has a grocery business in the same area.
Agarwal returned to India not long ago after completing his studies abroad, and had joined the family-owned real estate business as a director, an officer said.
Police said that Goyal and Agarwal had visited Lohagad fort twice earlier, while one time, Agarwal pulled out at the last moment. It is being probed if there was a plan to kill the 25-year-old these times as well.
Gill said: “Before the incident on June 18, they had gone twice to the fort, including as recently as June 14… We now know that Goyal and Chaudhary hatched the conspiracy to eliminate Agarwal several days before the incident. The families of Goyal and Agarwal had planned a party to celebrate Goyal’s birthday, but she insisted that Agarwal and she go to Lohagad fort a day earlier.”
Gill also talked about a pre-wedding shoot in Bali planned for the first week of June that had to be cancelled after Agarwal realised on reaching the Mumbai airport that his passport was missing. “Our investigation has revealed that Goyal took the passport to avoid going to Bali with Agarwal,” the SP said, adding that they are yet to recover the passport.
Siya Goyal, Ketan’s fiancée, and her alleged boyfriend Chetan Chaudhary were arrested on June 23 after Pune Rural police charged them with plotting his death by pushing him off Lohagad Fort on June 18.(Express Photo enhanced using AI/Special Arrangement) 
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