Why 3 witnesses emerging could be a breakthrough in Ketan Agarwal murder case

In what could be a critical breakthrough in the sensational Ketan Agarwal murder case, the police have managed to trace around three witnesses who claim to have seen accused Siya Goyal and Chetan Chaudhury at the scene of the crime.

Agarwal, a Pune-based realtor, was allegedly pushed to death by his fiance Goyal (20) and her friend Chaudhury (26) on June 18 from the Lohagad Fort near Pune. Photographs recovered from their phones indicate Goyal and Chaudhary may have tied the knot last year.

The police investigations have indicated that the accused duo allegedly tried to even hire contract killers from a neighbouring state to bump off Agarwal. Finally, at the fort, while Chaudhury allegedly pushed Agarwal, Goyal may have kicked her fiance, sending him down the 400-feet-deep gorge.

In its chargesheet, which was filed in a Pune court recently, the Pune Rural police have also detailed how the duo allegedly created a fake Instagram ID in the name of Goyal’s friend to message and persuade Agarwal to come to the fort.

In February 2026, intermediaries and relatives had proposed a match between Ketan, the son of Vishal Agarwal, and Siya, the daughter of Pravin Goyal, a wholesaler of dry fruits and masalas at the Pune market yard. The two were engaged later that month. Photographs of the ceremony and subsequent videos on social media show the couple happy and beaming. They were to marry in a ‘Rs 3 crore’ ceremony at a resort in Rajasthan’s Udaipur in November.Agarwal, who had completed his master’s degree from the United States, worked as the chief marketing officer of the family’s real-estate firm Success Group. He and his extended family lived in a 45-acre gated community at Gahunje off the arterial Mumbai- Pune expressway.

Late in 2025, Goyal is said to have met Chaudhary, whose family hails from Rajasthan, and has a wholesale business in groceries, at a local cricket tournament. Chaudhary, a BBA student, was a cricketer like Goyal’s elder brother Sahil (25), and the two were acquaintances.

When confronted by Sahil about their relationship, the two had denied it, a relative had said. Goyal seemed to have been unable to come to terms with her impending marriage with Agarwal, after which Chaudhary may have re-entered her life.

A purported screenshot of a May 25 Snapchat conversation in Hindi has Goyal asking her friend to send her Aadhaar card to book flight tickets for her wedding “which was never going to happen”. Goyal and Chaudhary are said to have exchanged 2,004 phone calls between January and June, and conversed for nearly 238 hours.

A senior police official said they had managed to locate three witnesses, who provided “a first-person account of the crime”. These statements have helped trace the “sequence of the movements” of Goyal and Chaudhury at the crime scene on Lohagad Fort. The witnesses had approached the police after the case was reported extensively across the media.

“We have managed to recover material evidence in the form of digital retrieval, cyber forensics, and corroborative and supportive witnesses,” said Sandeep Singh Gill, superintendent of police, Pune Rural. He added that investigators had managed to get evidence of the conspiracy to murder. Inspired by the 2025 Raja Raghuvanshi-Sonam Raghuvanshi case, Goyal and Chaudhury were allegedly on the lookout for a high-rise or valley to push Agarwal to death. They zeroed down on Lonavala and surveyed areas such as Tiger Point in May-end, before finally choosing Lohagad Fort.

“They searched online for deaths from these places and realised that in March 2025, a 21-year-old had lost her life after a fall from the fort. [On the other hand] Tiger Point was a cloudy area with exposure [to people]. So, they went to Lohagad and identified the place [where the crime was to be committed],” said Gill.

Gill noted that the police have recovered a clinching piece of evidence in the form of the IP address, which “establishes the conspiracy fully”.

In her first visit to the fort with Agarwal on May 31, Goyal is said to have made him pose at the same spot and clicked his photographs. These were subsequently shared with Chaudhary.

Goyal insisted on the two returning to the site on June 4 to commit the crime as she did not want to fly to Bali with Agarwal on June 6. However, this idea was shot down by Agarwal’s mother.

On June 6, Agarwal, his sister Sanjana, Goyal and her brother Sahil were scheduled to fly to Bali for a pre-wedding shoot. At the Mumbai airport, Agarwal’s passport was found missing from his bag and it is suspected to have been disposed of by Goyal. In his statement to the police, Ketan’s father Vishal said that after returning home, Ketan told him that Siya often argued with him on minor issues.

Agarwal’s mother and sister told the police that Goyal had thrown a tantrum after her request to visit the Lohagad Fort again on June 4 was turned down, and this prompted Agarwal to visit the fort on June 14 and 18. Agarwal had told his family that since Goyal was celebrating her 20th birthday on June 19 at the hill station of Mahabaleshwar in Satara district, her friends had decided to surprise her with an excursion to Lohagad on the previous day.

On June 18, Chaudhary is said to have driven his two-wheeler to the fort, climbed the fort while wearing a hoodie to avoid being identified by Agarwal, who had interacted twice with him on video call as Goyal’s friend, allegedly pushed Agarwal, and returned to the base of the fort wearing the hoodie, and left. Chaudhary completed the trek up and down the fort in just 48 minutes. Investigators estimated that he spent only 8-10 minutes at the summit, a window they believe was sufficient to execute the murder.

At the fateful moment, Goyal allegedly sat on the ground to tie her shoelaces, which was a signal for Chaudhary to rush in and push Agarwal. Goyal also allegedly kicked Agarwal, which, coupled with Chaudhary’s hard push, may have led to him fall into the gorge.

The police are said to have traced Chaudhary’s movements using CCTVs on the route back to Pune, including that in a roadside restaurant where he had misal (a Maharashtrian snack).

The attempts to camouflage his identity using a hoodie came unstuck for Chaudhary. On June 21, a police officer tracking the couple’s movements in the CCTV footage at the fort noticed something unusual—a man wearing a hooded sweatshirt on a summer day. The hoodie was worn like a ‘ghoongat’ (veil) over his face. He was also wearing a headphone over his hoodie, which came across as an attempt at camouflaging identity.

The cops focused their attention on this man, who was hovering around Goyal and Agarwal at the ticketing counter. He also seemed to be communicating with Goyal subtly using sign language. The unusual style of dressing is also said to have caught the eye of the witnesses.

Later, the police discovered that from 7 am to 5:40 pm on the fateful day, Chaudhary’s mobile data was off, and that the number had received only incoming calls, with no calls being made. Callers said that the worker in the shop had answered calls. To create an alibi for himself, Chaudhary had allegedly swapped his phone with that of a worker in their shop.

Goyal and Chaudhary allegedly attempted to rope in a contract killer via Chaudhary’s friend Chetan Hange, who has been arrested. Hange, who hails from the Marathwada region and worked in a private firm at Balewadi in Pune, contacted one of his friends from Bengaluru. However, the Bengaluru-based friend is said to have dissuaded them from the plan. Hange is claimed to be the couple’s advisor “since day one” and even coached them on the aspects of the conspiracy and likely replies in case they were interrogated by the police. Hange was, however, not present at the fort on the day of the murder.

Goyal may have had a small marriage ritual with Chaudhary. Photos retrieved from their phones show Goyal at the shrine of Khatu Shyam ji in Rajasthan with sindoor in the parting of her head and the two wearing garlands around their necks. Goyal and Chaudhary had similar photos on their mobile devices. The police have also recovered data from their mobile phones including “incriminating messages, chats, phone calls, and voice notes”.

Chaudhury and Goyal were arrested five days after Agarwal’s death. She first told the police that he had accidentally slipped while the couple were taking photographs. Later, she claimed to have stopped to rest after the climb, asked him for a bottle of water, and that he lost his balance while handing it to her. The police, however, found no photographs taken at Lohagad on Agarwal’s phone. Goyal is said to have told the first responders that Agarwal fell into the gorge after his right leg slipped, but an inspection of the scene revealed that he would have fallen only if his left leg had slipped.

When rescuers recovered Agarwal’s body, a police constable tried to console Goyal saying that he was alive. Officials said that Goyal was taken aback and looked scared.

Vishal had met Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis seeking a speedy trial. The Agarwals had to deal with another tragedy as family patriarch Devichand passed away on July 4. The footfalls at the fort had surged after the murder and its coverage in the media, and the spot was gradually being renamed ‘Siya Point’ in popular parlance.