– Ravi Prakash
The revelations made by Pune Police after Ketan Agarwal’s death sound like something straight out of a crime thriller. Do you know how the police uncovered the mystery behind this murder plan? After killing Ketan, Sia and Chetan had planned not to marry immediately, but to wait for a gap of three years so that no one would suspect anything! Police say that in the name of wedding expenses, Sia collected literally one crore rupees from Ketan. To make everything look completely normal on the outside while all this was happening underneath, they even planned a massive destination wedding in Rajasthan with a budget of Rs 17 crore. The investigation team says that on the day of the murder, the two accused carried out the plan while exchanging hand signals with each other.
The most shocking part of all is that Chetan and Sia had tried multiple times to kill Ketan even before June 18 — but those attempts failed! If all these allegations levelled by Pune Police are proven true in court, this will truly turn out to be a sensational crime thriller story. The accused could face life imprisonment, or even the death penalty. So what exactly are the police saying? What is the real story behind this plan? Let’s take a look at everything that happened, right from the start!
Ketan Agarwal was 26 years old. He had completed his MBA and returned from the US two years ago, and was looking after his family’s real estate and construction business in Pune. Sia Goyal is 20 years old, lives in the Kothrud area of Pune, and is in the second year of her BBA. According to the police investigation, Sia got engaged to Ketan, and wedding preparations began. Both families were ready to hold this wedding in grand style right in Pune. The destination wedding planned in Rajasthan had a budget of nearly Rs 17 crore! But behind this wedding facade, a secret love story was already running. Police say that at the time Sia got engaged to Ketan, she was in a relationship with a 22-year-old boy named Chetan Chaudhary. Chetan, from Kondhwa Budruk, is a cricketer who dreams of playing Ranji Trophy in the future. Sia and Chetan had earlier told their families they wanted to marry each other. But because of the vast difference in the financial status of the two families, Sia’s family did not agree to this marriage. That rejection is what turned this story on its head! Once their families refused, the couple changed course and hatched a dangerous plan. Sia decided that instead of telling anyone she didn’t want the engagement to Ketan, she would make everyone believe she genuinely liked Ketan and wanted to marry him. They planned to carry out the wedding preparations without raising anyone’s suspicion. This plan had many stages — the engagement had to happen, the wedding preparations had to proceed, and Ketan had to trust her blindly. Riding on that trust, Sia took one crore rupees from Ketan in the name of jewellery, clothes, and wedding shopping.
That money was never spent on wedding shopping — she handed it all over to Chetan. Sia and Chetan made a rule that even after Ketan’s death, they should not marry right away, and must wait at least three years, so that no one would suspect anything. That’s why everything appeared completely normal on the outside. On one hand, wedding preparations were moving forward grandly, and the Rajasthan wedding plans were underway. To the world, the two of them looked like a very happy couple. But behind this wedding mask, a horrific conspiracy was unfolding — one that eventually led all of them to a single place: Lohagad Fort. However, before the murder on June 18, some crucial developments took place in this case, and these are now turning points in the investigation — a Bali trip, a missing passport, repeated visits to Lohagad Fort, and how the murder attempts on Ketan failed before June 18. Let’s see where this investigation actually led.
According to Pune Police’s account, this entire conspiracy revolves around a single central point — Lohagad Fort. Located about 75 km from Pune, this fort is one of the most popular trekking spots in Maharashtra. Standing at a height of nearly 3,389 feet, the fort offers a view of a valley nearly 400 feet deep below. But according to investigating officers, the accused did not view this simply as a tourist spot — they selected this place with precise planning. Even before June 18, Sia had spent hours searching the internet about Lohagad Fort, its trails, and its history. When the forensic team checked Sia’s mobile phone, several shocking details emerged. Evidence showed that she had searched Google for the fort’s most dangerous rock formation, known as “Vinchu Kata” (scorpion’s tail), shaped like a scorpion’s tail. Not just that — she had also watched YouTube videos and social media reels about which edges of the fort were dangerous, and from where a fall would prove fatal.
This digital evidence has now become extremely crucial to the case. But it wasn’t just internet searches — a concrete plan had already been in motion on the ground even before that. Sia visited Lohagad Fort multiple times before June 18 — once on May 31, again on June 14, and finally on June 18, taking Ketan there with her. Police say that in the mere 12 days before Ketan’s death, Sia went around this fort as many as four times. These were not casual trips! The investigation team strongly believes that Sia made all these visits purely to study the trails and pick the exact spot from where pushing someone would get the job done. It was during this digging that police found a specific location — locally referred to as the “dead point.” Anyone falling from that spot into the 400-foot valley below would have no chance of survival. Sia and Chetan had fixed on this exact spot even before June 18.
But before the final trip on June 18, another horrifying incident had already taken place there — a failed murder attempt! On June 14 too, Sia and Ketan were trekking at Lohagad Fort. Suddenly, Sia pointed to one side and shouted “Look, a snake!” to Ketan. The moment Ketan turned to look, she tried to push him into the valley. But luck was on Ketan’s side — he managed to grab hold of a nearby tree branch and survived. What happened after this is even more chilling. Ketan never imagined that Sia had tried to kill him — he blindly believed that she had pushed him only to save him from the snake. Because he trusted her so completely, this failed attempt gave the conspiracy another turn. After this incident, Chetan insisted on personally getting involved. Initially, Sia had wanted to carry out the plan alone. But after the first attempt failed, they decided that this time, on June 18, both Sia and Chetan would execute the plan together. Another interesting chapter that emerged in this investigation is the “Bali trip.” Ketan and Sia were actually supposed to travel to Bali, Indonesia, for a pre-wedding photoshoot. But Sia had absolutely no interest in going on that trip with Ketan, and repeatedly pressured him to cancel it. However, since the flight tickets and hotel bookings had already been made, Sia’s brother insisted that they had to go. The accused feared that if the Bali trip went ahead, it would put a brake on the murder plan they had set in motion. This led to another twist in the story. For the Bali trip, Sia and Ketan set out from Pune to Mumbai by car. On the way, the car stopped near a food mall close to Khalapur. They went in to grab a bite. According to the driver’s statement, Sia said she had lost her mobile phone and went back to the car alone to look for it. It was during this gap that Sia stole Ketan’s passport from his bag inside the car.
She tore it into pieces and threw it away in the ladies’ washroom, then came back to the car as if nothing had happened. The plan behind this was simple — if Ketan didn’t have his passport, the trip would automatically get cancelled! Police are still searching the area around that Khalapur food mall for the torn pieces of the passport. Based on witness accounts and the driver’s statement, search teams have swung into action. Police are now linking all these threads together — the repeated visits around Lohagad Fort, the internet searches, the torn passport, and the cancelled Bali trip — and strongly believe all of these were part of a single conspiracy. But on June 18, the story took an unexpected turn. That day, this dangerous plan entered its final phase. What exactly happened atop Lohagad Fort that day? What are the facts the police are laying out? Let’s look at the climax of this murder mystery that has created a sensation across Maharashtra!
June 18 — according to Pune Police, this was the day the dangerous plan hatched by Sia and Chetan reached its final stage. Sia once again deliberately convinced Ketan to go trekking at Lohagad Fort. Since she had already visited the place several times by then, she had complete clarity on the trails and on exactly where pushing him would get the job done easily. According to police, this time the plan entered its execution phase. But there is another key character in this story — Chetan Chaudhary. On June 18, Chetan did not go there like a regular tourist. He staged an elaborate act to conceal his identity — wearing a hoodie, cap, mask, goggles, and headphones so that no one would recognise him. Not stopping there, he even changed out of his white T-shirt into a black one that same day. He also used a scooter instead of a car to reach the fort, because travelling by car would get recorded at toll plazas, whereas a scooter would leave behind no digital trail — or so Chetan planned.
What’s more, to keep his mobile phone location from being tracked, he left his phone behind at a shop in Pune before setting out. During the investigation, police uncovered another shocking loophole. Sia and Chetan had pre-decided on certain hand signals, since talking to each other on top of the hill would arouse suspicion among others. While trekking, Chetan walked behind Sia and Ketan. The moment he received the agreed signal from Sia, he swung into action. Following this, Ketan was pushed off Lohagad Fort into the 400-foot-deep valley below. He died on the spot from severe head injuries. But initially, the case was not seen this way at all. When Ketan’s body was found, everyone assumed he had accidentally slipped and fallen into the valley, and the case was filed as an accidental death. However, as the police investigation progressed, the story turned upside down. Through forensic reports, witness statements, and intense questioning of the accused, the truth came out — this was a cold-blooded murder.
It was only after this that police launched one of the most in-depth investigations in the country. Immediately after the murder, both accused deleted the data on their mobile phones. Cyber forensic experts are now working to recover that data. If recovered, it will provide firm links to what happened both before and after June 18. But the digital evidence the two left behind has already become the biggest evidence in this case. Over the past six months, Chetan and Sia spoke on the phone as many as 2,400 times — amounting to nearly 238 hours, or roughly ten days’ worth of time. Some calls lasted as long as two to three hours. Police are now analysing this entire call data. But the most interesting part of this investigation is the CCTV footage! Because Chetan had covered his face with a mask, his face was not clearly visible in the CCTV footage.
To get around this, police used a cutting-edge technology — Artificial Intelligence-based gait analysis. Do you know what gait analysis actually means? Every person in the world has a distinct walking style. Just as our fingerprints are unique, the way we take steps, our body posture while walking, our speed, and the way we move our hands are equally unique to each of us. Using this AI software, police are now matching the walking pattern of the masked person seen in the CCTV footage with Chetan’s normal walking style. Even without a visible face, this technology helps prove that the person is indeed Chetan, based purely on his gait. In addition, to determine the exact spot from which Ketan was pushed off the fort, police took Sia and Chetan into custody and brought them back to Lohagad Fort. There, they carried out a crime scene reconstruction — recreating every step they took that day, every signal they exchanged, minute by minute. This was necessary because even after arresting the accused, the exact spot from which Ketan fell had not been pinpointed. That is why police had to go back up the hill again.
The investigation into this case is still ongoing. The government has handed over the case to a fast-track court. Renowned lawyer Ujjwal Nikam is set to argue the case as the public prosecutor. The court will now examine all the evidence gathered by Pune Police. Under the law, the accused cannot be declared guilty until proven so in court. But one thing is certain — this murder mystery has now become a nationwide sensation. Is what the police are saying true? Will this digital evidence, cyber forensics, AI technology, and witness testimonies be enough to secure a conviction for the accused? Or will the court trial throw up yet another new twist? The answers to all these questions will be found only in court. Until then, the Lohagad Fort murder case remains the most gripping criminal investigation in the country!