Pune: Siya Goyal and Chetan Chaudhary, arrested in the June 18 murder of Gahunje realtor Ketan Agarwal at Lohagad Fort, have blamed each other for orchestrating the crime, the Pune Rural police said on Thursday, citing their custodial interrogation findings. An officer, however, said evidence pointed to Goyal as the mastermind.Agarwal and Goyal got engaged in Feb and were set to tie the knot by year-end. The Pune Rural police told TOI that Goyal claimed she had repeatedly told Agarwal that she did not wish to marry him, but he refused to call off the wedding. “She has alleged that it was Chaudhary who then devised the plan to eliminate Agarwal. On his part, Agarwal has alleged that it was Goyal who forced him to kill Agarwal,” the officer said.Amid these conflicting claims, the officer said, “Evidence gathered so far suggests that the entire murder plot was hatched by Goyal.”Agarwal’s fatal fall off a cliff at Lohagad Fort was initially registered as an accidental death after his fiancée, Goyal, claimed that he fell while posing for a photograph. The police, however, didn’t recover any photograph from her phone. Subsequent investigations revealed that Goyal and her boyfriend, Chaudhary, orchestrated the murder, with the latter pushing Agarwal off the cliff acting on a signal from Goyal. They were taken into custody on Monday and subsequently arrested for murder and criminal conspiracy on Tuesday.Pune Rural superintendent of police Sandeep Singh Gill said Agarwal was an avid trekker who frequently visited forts around Pune. “On May 31, Goyal accompanied him to Lohagad Fort and allegedly identified a location near the Vinchu Kata ridge as the site for the planned crime,” he said.According to Agarwal’s family, she tried to push Agarwal off a cliff on Lohagad Fort on May 31, but the realtor survived the attempt by clinging to a bush. She then dismissed the incident as an accident. “On June 4, Goyal attempted to take him to the fort again, but his mother did not permit the trip. Later, on June 14, the couple visited the fort, but allegedly abandoned her plan amid heavy visitor rush,” the police said.“On June 6, ahead of their Bali trip for a pre-wedding photoshoot, Goyal discarded Agarwal’s passport, indicating prior planning,” Gill said.Investigators have also recorded the statement of an employee at Chaudhary’s store. The employee told police that on June 18, Chaudhary left his cellphone at the shop and took the employee’s phone with him to Lohagad Fort, possibly to avoid detection.Additionally, CCTV footage from a Pune cafe showed Goyal and Chaudhary meeting between May 31 and June 4. Police are currently questioning the pair about this meeting.As part of the ongoing investigation, a police team escorted Goyal to Lohagad Fort on Thursday to reconstruct the crime. A forensic team also visited the site to collect evidence.
