What began as a seemingly tragic hiking accident at one of western India’s most popular scenic tourist spots has exploded into a high-profile criminal case that has captured national attention and reignited debates over media trials in India. On June 18, 26-year-old Ketan Agarwal fell to his death from a steep ravine at Lohagad Fort, a historic trekking destination outside Pune, during an outing with his 20-year-old fiancée, Siya Goyal. The pair had been engaged in February, with wedding preparations fully underway and a date set for later the same year, according to both families.
Initially, authorities and witnesses treated the death as an unfortunate misadventure. But within days, Pune police made two shocking arrests: Siya Goyal and her 22-year-old friend Chetan Chaudhary, charging both with the premeditated murder of Agarwal. Senior police officials told reporters the pair were carrying on a romantic relationship, and that Goyal had grown unwilling to proceed with her planned marriage to Agarwal. Investigators allege the pair conspired to push Agarwal from the fort’s height to stage his death as an accidental slip.
Investigators have outlined their case step-by-step to the press. Senior Pune police officer Sandeep Gill told reporters that suspicion first emerged because Agarwal was an experienced trekker, making an unprovoked slip unlikely, and Ketan’s own family had raised early concerns about the circumstances of his death. Senior inspector Dinesh Tayade added that the break in the case came from CCTV footage captured near the fort’s foothills on the day of the death: on a 33-degree Celsius morning, the footage captured an unidentified man wearing a hooded sweatshirt with his head fully covered, clothing investigators deemed unusual for the warm weather. That man, police have confirmed, was identified as Chetan Chaudhary.
As of early July, both accused remain in police custody and are scheduled to appear back in court Friday. Neither suspect has issued a public statement, but their legal teams have forcefully rejected all allegations, calling the case baseless and the arrest premature. Siya Goyal’s attorney Vipul Dushing told reporters that his client maintains her innocence and is cooperating with investigations, arguing that she was arrested solely on the complaint of Ketan’s family with no concrete evidence to support the charges. “There’s no evidence and police are just drawing inferences,” Dushing said, questioning the validity of the police’s recent crime scene reconstruction and gait analysis to match Chaudhary to the hooded figure on CCTV, noting the process cannot produce conclusive proof of identity. Chetan Chaudhary’s attorney Ram Shahane echoed the criticism, stating there is no direct evidence tying his client to the scene, and that he has only been implicated due to his friendship with Goyal.
The case has quickly become the latest high-profile crime to stoke a massive media frenzy across India, with unverified investigative details leaked to reporters and personal content from the victim and accused circulating widely on social media. Siya Goyal in particular has faced relentless online harassment: even as the investigation remains ongoing, she has been widely labeled a murderer on public platforms, and a pre-arrest video of her mourning Agarwal’s death has been widely shared to mock her.
Both families have been shattered by the fallout of the tragedy. Ketan Agarwal’s parents, who have called for the death penalty for the accused and met with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to demand swift justice, said they cannot understand the alleged motive. “If she did not want to marry, she could have refused. We would have cancelled the marriage immediately,” Ketan’s father Vishal Agarwal said. The state government has appointed high-profile celebrity lawyer Ujjwal Nikam, best known for securing the death penalty for 2008 Mumbai attacker Ajmal Kasab, as the public prosecutor for the case.
For Siya Goyal’s family, the turn of events has been equally devastating: her father fainted and was hospitalized hours after the arrest, and the family has rejected police claims that Siya was forced into the marriage. Her mother Pooja Goyal said that the family repeatedly checked in with Siya about her engagement, and that she repeatedly confirmed she loved Ketan and wanted to proceed with the wedding. “If Siya had any problems and discussed it with us, we would have called off the wedding. But there was no problem. Siya loved him very much,” she said, noting that the tragedy has devastated both families irreparably, and that whoever is found guilty should face the strictest possible punishment.