The Pune Rural Police on Sunday took Sia Goyal, who is accused of conspiring to murder her fiancé Ketan Agarwal, along with her boyfriend, to Lohagad Fort to recreate the sequence of events that led to the June 18 murder.
The crime scene recreation exercise, which began around 6:30 a.m. amid tight security measures, continued for nearly 3 hours. During this time, the police revealed several details, including the “signal” that Goyal and her boyfriend, Chetan Chaudhary, had before pushing 25-year-old Ketan Agarwal off the slope of Pune Fort.
20-year-old Siya Goyal and 22-year-old Chetan Chaudhary were arrested for conspiring to kill Agarwal by pushing him off a cliff in Lohagad Fort.
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“The accused was taken to Lohagad Fort, and the sequence of events was recreated. The route he took, the locations of those involved, and the manner in which the incident took place were ascertained,” HT had earlier reported, Pune Rural Police Superintendent Sandeep Singh Gill said.
The aim of the entertaining exercise was to establish the exact circumstances leading up to Agarwal’s death and ascertain the role of the accused in the crime.
Chetan Chaudhary will also be taken to the fort separately to entertain the crime scene.
“Sit” signal.
While recreating the crime scene using a doll that matched Ketan’s weight and height, Goyal revealed that she sat down to signal Chetan to push her fiancée, Ketan Agarwal, out of the fort.
As per the plan, Goyal was to give a sit signal, after which Chaudhary would come and push the unsuspecting Agarwal to his death.
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The two alleged conspirators reportedly decided that she should either sit down to drink water or pretend to tie her shoelaces.
“Signal” for “safety”
What stood out the most was that Sia Goyal’s decision to sit out was also a deliberate move to protect her.
A police officer said that the accused deliberately chose this gesture so that Goyal would not be within reach of Ketan Agarwal during the fatal push.
“They feared that if Chetan pushed Ketan and the latter tried to catch Siya as she fell, she too might fall into the valley. The plan was made keeping her safety in mind,” news agency PTI quoted a police officer as saying.
Scooter ride for 90 km
Chetan Chaudhary, co-accused of Siya Goyal, was extremely careful while traveling from Pune to Lohagad Fort.
Police said Chaudhary deliberately chose to travel from Pune to the Fort, a distance of about 90 km, on a motorcycle instead of a car.
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An official involved in the investigation said, “Chaudhary traveled to Lohagad Fort on the morning of June 18. He chose a motorcycle instead of a car because he feared that the vehicle would be discovered at the toll plaza. We have seized the scooter.”
After killing Ketan Agarwal, Chaudhary also returned to Pune on the same scooter, the official added.
Hoodie > Black T-Shirt > Hoodie
Investigators further revealed that Chetan Chaudhary changed his appearance after arriving at Lohagad Fort to hide his presence at the scene before and after the crime.
Chaudhary climbed the fort wearing a hoodie, the official said. He later removed it and remained wearing a black T-shirt. Once again, as he was leaving the fort, he put on his hoodie again.
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The official said that Siya Goyal and Chetan Chaudhary planned meticulously and both reportedly admitted that they had visited the fort to find a suitable place to push Ketan Agarwal from the cliff and do some “training”.
The official added: “We have not yet confirmed the other location where they trained.”
Investigation and evidence
The two defendants are scheduled to appear in court on Monday at the end of their police custody period. Cops are set to seek further remand for the two.
The police revealed that during investigation, Goyal allegedly told them that she did not want Ketan Agarwal and that she had planned the crime with Chaudhary, as she feared that canceling the wedding would lead to conflict within her family.
Goyal’s lawyer, advocate Ashutosh Srivastava, questioned the probative value of the practice.
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He cited the Indian Evidence Act to state that any confession made by an accused while in custody or police custody is inadmissible as evidence in criminal law.
“We will definitely raise this point. If the prosecution has any corroborating evidence, it can submit it at a later stage. The investigation is currently ongoing, and the chargesheet has not been filed yet. We will have to wait and see what concrete evidence the investigation turns up,” Srivastava added.
(With inputs from HT correspondent, news agency PTI)
