Pune:
Ketan Agarwal had no inkling about his fiancee Siya Goyal’s alleged affair with Chetan Chaudhary, but he had felt something amiss because her phone would remain busy for hours, Vishal Agarwal, his father, told NDTV. The businessman also said his family would have called off the wedding had Siya indicated that she was in a relationship with another man.
Siya and Ketan, daughter and son of wealthy businessmen in Maharashtra, were engaged in February. Both families were planning a grand wedding in November. On June 18, however, Ketan fell to his death in a gorge at the Lohagad Fort in Pune while trekking with Siya. Initially, it was declared an accidental death. But Ketan’s sister’s suspicion led to a police investigation, which revealed that Chaudhary and Siya had pushed him.
According to the police, Siya and Chaudhary were in a relationship.
Ketan’s father, however, said that the woman never laid bare her intentions.
“We didn’t know that she wasn’t happy. Every other day, Ketan and Siya would go to dinners. She used to call him, my daughter and my wife…We didn’t know about her relationship with another man. Siya never told my son about her affair. He, however, once told me that Siya’s phone would remain in waiting mode… her phone always used to remain busy,” he said.
He said that when Ketan confronted her about her phone being busy, she said she had been talking to her friends.
Also read: Hours Before Killing Fiance, Pune Woman Met Lover At Cafe To Plan Murder
‘We Would Have Cancelled The Wedding’
The businessman said that if Siya had anonymously sent her have cancelled the marriage.
“If she had an affair with someone, she could have told anyone about it. She could have sent her and the man’s photos to us on WhatsApp…We would have called off the wedding. We hadn’t forced her to get married to Ketan,” he said.
He suspects that Siya’s parents and her aunt knew about the affair and pressured Siya to get married to Ketan.
“Maybe they had some planning that we don’t know as of yet. The police will find this in the investigation. We don’t know why they did this,” he added.
Siya had initially succeeded in passing the crime off as an accident. However, her behaviour after her fiance’s death evoked suspicion.
The businessman said his daughter, Sanjana, asked several general questions to Siya, but she had no answers.
“Sanjana didn’t have suspicion before. But after Ketan’s death, she was suspicious about Siya’s role. Because it was unlike him to stop on the edge of the cliff. When the police brought the body out of the gorge, Sanjana asked several questions to Siya, but she couldn’t answer any of the queries. The questions were general — how did this happen, when did this happen, why did he go to the edge? She had no answer,” he said.
He demanded the death penalty for those who killed his son.
“I appeal to the police to go to the bottom of the conspiracy and find out if other people were also involved in this. They should get the death penalty. They killed my 26-year-old son for such a trivial matter. Not wanting to marry isn’t a massive deal. We would have cancelled it,” he added.
According to the police, it wasn’t Siya and Chetan’s first attempt to kill Ketan.
On May 31, the couple had gone to Lohagad Fort. She had again insisted that they visit the fort four days later, but Ketan’s mother did not allow him.
On June 14, he agreed. She tried to push him off the cliff. He survived, holding on to a bush. When Ketan asked why he had been pushed, she raised a false alarm about a snake and tried to make it appear that she had protected him.
On June 18, Siya and Chetan met at a cafe in Pune and planned his murder.
She later took Ketan to the fort. Chetan lurked behind. The couple pushed Ketan into the gorge.
During the probe, the police identified Chetan in CCTV footage as he had been wearing a hoodie amid scorching heat, evoking suspicion.
The CCTV footage showed Ketan and his fiancee walking together at the fort. Siya’s lover was seen following them from a close distance of around 20 to 30 feet.
