What was initially thought to be a tragic flight accident has now turned into an alleged murder plot involving a young woman and her boyfriend, just months before her wedding.
Five days after the death of Pune businessman Ketan Vishal Agarwal in Lohagad Fort was registered as accidental, police have arrested his fiancée, Siya Goyal, 20, and her alleged boyfriend, Chetan Chaudhary, 22. Investigators allege that the two conspired to push Agarwal into a 400-foot ravine with the aim of killing him.
The arrests also highlighted warning signs that Ketan’s family now believe were overlooked, including the 25-year-old’s concerns about Goyal’s behaviour, her frequent phone use and her apparent closeness to another man.
Father says Ketan had doubts
Ketan’s father, Vishal Agarwal, said: “After the engagement in February, Ketan and Sia frequently met and hung out together. At times, Ketan expressed her concerns about Sia and asked us if we had properly verified her ancestry.” He told HT.
“But since her family was connected to us through our extended family network, I reassured him that everything was fine,” Agarwal added.
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According to Ketan’s father, the couple often argued over minor issues. He also noted that Sia spent a lot of time on her phone. Ketan even mentioned Chetan Chaudhary’s name, raising doubts about a possible relationship between the two.
He added: “We thought about postponing the wedding because she was very young, but her parents insisted on going ahead with it because they would not find a partner like my son.”
Police said the events leading up to Ketan’s death began on June 18, one day before Sia’s 20th birthday.
She attended a B-school in Massachusetts and was scheduled to get married in November
Ketan was a director in his family company, Success Group, a major warehouse developer in Maharashtra. After earning his master’s degree from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College in Massachusetts, he returned to Pune in 2023 to join the family business.
He got engaged to Sia Goyal earlier this year through a family arrangement facilitated by his uncle. The couple was scheduled to get married in November, and hotels in Udaipur have already been booked for the wedding celebrations.
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However, police allege that while the wedding preparations were progressing, Sia was having an affair with Chaudhary, whose family also runs a business in the same business area as her father.
Investigation reveals the alleged conspiracy
As investigators dug deeper, they found many inconsistencies in the account of the incident.
Gill noted that Ketan was an experienced traveler and frequently visited Lohagad Fort and knew the terrain well. The statements made by his family also prompted police to closely scrutinize Sia’s actions.
A forensic examination of her phone and other evidence allegedly revealed that she and Chaudhry had been in a relationship for more than a year. Investigators believe she was trying to avoid marrying Ketan.
One such example came up during a planned pre-wedding photography trip to Bali earlier this month. Police allege that the flight was canceled after Ketan discovered that his passport was missing at the Mumbai airport. During the investigation, officers allegedly discovered that Sia had hidden the passport to prevent the trip from taking place.
Police also revealed another incident that occurred just four days before Ketan’s death. During a previous trip to Lohagad, Sia had allegedly pushed him, and later claimed she had spotted a snake and was trying to save it.
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Her boyfriend is “present at the fort”
Investigators say call records placed Choudhary at Lohagad Fort at the same time as Ketan and Siya on June 18.
“Through the call recording data, we were able to find out that Chetan Chaudhary was also in Lohagad at the same time as Ketan and Siya were there,” SP Gill said.
According to the police officer, the two accused confessed to the crime during interrogation. Authorities described the case as bearing similarities to last year’s widely reported “honeymoon murder” incident of Raja Raghuvanshi, a resident of Indore, in Meghalaya.
Siya Goyal and Chetan Chaudhary have been booked under Sections 103 and 61 (2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Act, which deals with murder and criminal conspiracy. They have been detained while the investigation is still ongoing.
