A Pune district court on Monday extended police custody of Siya Goyal and co-accused Chetan Chaudhary until July 3 in the murder case of realtor Ketan Agarwal, after the prosecution said further custodial interrogation was needed to investigate the exact crime scene and trace the victim’s missing passport.
The accused were produced before the court of Judicial Magistrate AM Vibhut in Vadgaon Maval after their initial police custody ended.
Goyal, 20, the victim’s fiancée, and her alleged lover, Chaudhary, 22, were arrested on charges of conspiring to kill Agarwal and pushing him off a cliff at Lohagad Fort in Pune district on June 18.
Why did the court extend the police custody of Sia and Chetan?
Requesting an extension of their detention period, the prosecution told the court that the investigation revealed that the accused had previously visited the fort to identify a suitable location for the murder. Police said they needed to confirm precisely the locations where the alleged reconnaissance and training exercises were conducted.
Assistant Public Prosecutor Rajashree Virkode also told the court that investigators wanted to question Goyal about the whereabouts of Agarwal’s passport, which she had allegedly disposed of while traveling to Mumbai on June 6.
Opposing the petition, Goyal’s counsel, advocate Vipul Dosheng, said her arrest was illegal and was carried out without valid reasons.
The court ordered the defendants to be detained until July 3.
Latest developments in the case
Police took Sia on Sunday to Lohagad Fort to reconstruct the crime scene, using a doll to simulate the moment he was pushed to his death, an official said.
The aim of the exercise was to establish the exact sequence of events of the June 18 incident, when the 25-year-old victim was killed by Siya and Chetan.
“The accused was taken to the actual spot where the incident took place,” a senior official from Pune Rural Police said.
A fake body was created, he said, and police officials asked Goyal to explain how Ketan was pushed from the site. It also showed the route she took to reach the crime scene.
Read also: Sitting on ‘The Signal’, Sia Goyal’s ‘Safety’: What Police Found in Recreating Ketan Agarwal’s Murder Scene
In the latest investigation update, the police found that Sia sat down not only to signal Chetan to push him out of Lohagad Fort, but also to ensure that she remained out of the victim’s reach during the fall.
(With inputs from PTI)
