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Sitting down ‘signal’, Siya Goyal's ‘safety’: What police found in Ketan Agarwal's murder scene recreation
Police official said that Siya Goyal and Chetan Chaudhary meticulously planned, and both admitted to visiting the fort to find a suitable spot for the murder.
The Pune Rural police on Sunday took Siya Goyal, accused of allegedly conspiring and killing her fiancé Ketan Agarwal, with her boyfriend, to Lohagad Fort to recreate the sequence of events leading to the June 18 murder.
The crime scene recreation exercise, which began around 6:30 am amid tight security, lasted nearly 3 hours. During this time, police uncovered several details, including the 'signal' that Goyal and her boyfriend, Chetan Chaudhary, had before pushing 25-year-old Ketan Agarwal off the cliff at the Pune fort.
A 20-year-old Siya Goyal and a 22-year-old Chetan Chaudhary were arrested for allegedly conspiring to kill Agarwal by pushing him off a cliff at the Lohagad Fort.
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Pune Rural superintendent of police, Sandeep Singh Gill, said, "The accused was taken to Lohagad Fort, and the sequence of events was recreated. The route taken, positions of those involved, and the manner in which the incident unfolded were verified," HT reported earlier.
The recreation exercise was meant to establish the precise circumstances in the lead-up to Agarwal's death and to verify the accused's role in the crime.
Chetan Chaudhary will also be taken to the fort separately for the crime scene recreation.
A 'sit down' signal
While recreating the crime scene, using a dummy matching Ketan's weight and height, Goyal revealed that she sat down to signal to Chetan to push her fiancé, Ketan Agarwal, off the fort.
As per the plan, Goyal was to give a signal by sitting down, following which Chaudhary was to come up and push an unsuspecting Agarwal to his death.
The two alleged conspirators had reportedly decided that she would sit down either to drink water or pretend to tie her shoelaces.
'Signal' for 'safety'
What stood out further was that Siya Goyal's decision to sit down was also a well-thought-out move to protect her.
A police officer said that the two accused deliberately chose this signal so that Goyal would not be within Ketan Agarwal's reach during the fatal push.
"They feared that if Chetan pushed Ketan and the latter tried to grab Siya while falling, she, too, could fall into the gorge. The plan was made keeping her safety in mind," a police officer was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
A 90-km scooter ride
Siya Goyal's co-accused, Chetan Chaudhary, was extremely careful while even travelling from Pune to the Lohagad Fort.
Police said that Chaudhary deliberately chose to travel from Pune to the fort, a distance of about 90 km, on a scooter rather than in a car.
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An official, part of the probe, said, "Chaudhary travelled to Lohagad Fort on the morning of June 18. He chose a scooter over a car as he feared the car could be detected at a toll plaza. We have seized the scooter."
After killing Ketan Agarwal, Chaudhary returned to Pune also on the same scooter, the official added.
Hoodie > Black Tee > Hoodie
Investigators further revealed that Chetan Chaudhary changed his appearance after reaching the Lohagad Fort to mask his presence at the scene before and after the crime.
The official said that Chaudhary climbed the fort in a hoodie. He later removed it and then remained in a black T-shirt. Again, while leaving the fort, he put on the hoodie again.
The official said that Siya Goyal and Chetan Chaudhary meticulously planned, and both reportedly admitted that they visited the fort to find a suitable spot to push Ketan Agarwal off the cliff and to do some "practice".
"We are yet to ascertain which other spot they had practised at," the official added.
Probe and evidence
On Monday, both the accused will be produced before the court as their police custody ends. Cops are set to seek further remand of the two.
Police have revealed that during the investigation, Goyal allegedly told them that she did not want Ketan Agarwal and had planned the crime with Chaudhary, as she feared that calling off the wedding would cause dispute in her family.
Goyal's lawyer, advocate Aashutosh Srivastava, questioned the evidentiary value of the exercise.
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He cited the Indian Evidence Act to state that any confession made by an accused while in detention or police custody is inadmissible as evidence in criminal law.
"We will certainly raise this point. If the prosecution has any corroborative evidence, it can produce it at a later stage. The investigation is currently ongoing, and the charge sheet has not been filed yet. We will have to wait and see what concrete evidence emerges from the inquiry," Srivastava added.
(with inputs from HT correspondent, news agency PTI)
