What was initially logged by local emergency teams as a tragic trekking mishap at Lonavala’s historic Lohagad Fort has unraveled into a deeply unsettling, highly premeditated corporate-family murder plot. Investigators from the Pune Rural Police revealed on Wednesday a staggering treasure trove of digital forensics indicting 20-year-old Siya Goyal and her secret partner, 22-year-old Chetan Chaudhary.
The duo is accused of systematically plotting and executing the murder of Goyal’s wealthy fiancé, 25-year-old real estate heir Ketan Vishal Agarwal, by deliberately luring him to the edge of a 400-foot-deep gorge on June 18.
A comprehensive analysis of call detail records (CDR) and forensic data led by Pune Rural Superintendent of Police, Sandip Singh Gill, exposed an intense web of communication between the two co-conspirators. Between January 1 and June 18, Goyal and Chaudhary exchanged an astonishing 2,004 phone calls, clocking over 238 hours of continuous coordination. Even more damningly, state cyber units recovered active web browsing logs from both of their mobile devices showing explicit, repeated search inquiries on methods to kill an individual cleanly. On the morning of the murder, the pair reportedly met at a local café to finalize their choreography before Goyal stepped onto the trek with a unsuspecting Agarwal.
“The level of premeditation in this case is stark. They spent hundreds of hours in communication, used their personal mobile devices to seek lethal execution strategies online, and even maintained continuous cellular contact immediately following the incident to align their cover stories.” — Sandip Singh Gill, Superintendent of Pune Rural Police
Timeline of Events: Unmasking the Overlooked Red Flags
| Timeline Coordinates | Incident Dynamic & Forensic Discovery Notes (June 2026) |
| February 2026 | The Arranged Engagement: Orchestrated via family matches; Udaipur destination luxury wedding booked for November. |
| Early June 2026 | The Missing Passport: A lavish pre-wedding shoot to Bali was abruptly aborted at Mumbai airport after Siya secretly stole Ketan’s passport. |
| Four Days Prior | The Snake Alibi: A trial trek to Lohagad where Siya pushed Ketan, later claiming she did so to frantically “save” him from a viper. |
| June 18, 2026 | The Final Push: Siya insists on an early-morning pre-birthday hike; Ketan is pushed to his death into a 400-foot gorge. |
| The Crucial Clue | The Hoodie in the Heat: CCTV catches Chetan tailing them on the peak wearing a heavy winter hoodie and headphones in 33°C weather. |
The Trapped Societal Pressure and the Shadow of Extravagance
The dark underlying motive behind the execution traces back to rigid societal expectations within wealthy business communities. Ketan Agarwal, a brilliant business mind who had recently returned from Massachusetts after completing his Master’s degree at Babson College’s FW Olin Graduate School, was the designated director of Success Group one of Maharashtra’s largest warehousing empires. While Goyal also hailed from an exceptionally affluent Pune industrial family, her private affection belonged to Chaudhary. Trapped under immense societal expectations and terrified of tarnishing her family’s public image by eloping or breaking off a high-profile ₹14-crore wedding arrangement, Goyal chose a path of ultimate violence instead.
The case took its definitive turn when senior police inspector Dinesh Tayade of the Lonavala Rural Police station noticed glaring inconsistencies in the accident report. Investigators looking over foothill CCTV feeds spotted a suspicious individual ascending the trail in grueling 33°C summer heat wrapped entirely in a dark winter hoodie with a covered head.
This individual was later geo-located via cell-tower triangulation to be Chetan Chaudhary, working in perfect tandem with Siya on the mountaintop. Both individuals have now been formally arrested and remanded to judicial custody under Sections 103 (Murder) and 61(2) (Criminal Conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).