Lohagad Fort death: Cops take Siya to site where she and Chetan ‘rehearsed’ alleged murder plot

3 min readPuneUpdated: Jul 2, 2026 06:47 PM IST

Siya (middle) and Chetan (right) were arrested on June 23 after investigators pieced together the alleged conspiracy step by step.

Days before they allegedly pushed Ketan Agarwal (26) from a cliff of the Lohagad Fort in Pune, his fiancee Siya Goyal (20) and her boyfriend rehearsed how they would execute their murder plan, a probe revealed. Police said this research was conducted in an open space next to a club lounge in Pune’s Lulla Nagar area. A Police team took Siya on Thursday morning to this location for investigation.

“It is becoming increasingly evident as the investigation progresses that Siya and Chetan not only planned the execution of the alleged conspiracy but also took deliberate steps to ensure that the incident would not be detected by investigators as a case of murder, employing measures in both the physical and digital domains to conceal the crime and misdirect the investigation,” said the officer.

The officer added, “For example, we now know that Siya and Chetan conducted practice on how to execute the plan of pushing Ketan off the cliff. This practice was conducted near a club lounge in Pune’s Lulla Nagar area on Bibwewadi Kondhwa Road. We are now investigating why this particular location was chosen and how the two conducted the practice. On Thursday morning an investigation team took Siya to the location to find out how the practice was held and recreate it. We now know they rehearsed giving signals to each other and then pushing one of them. We have reason to believe that it was during this rehearsal that they decided on the signal—Siya sitting down. By doing so, they believed they would reduce the likelihood of Ketan grabbing hold of her when he was pushed.”

Another officer who is part of the investigation said, “We are also probing that Siya and Chetan accessed some social media and internet platforms to gather information on how to avoid getting caught by the police after they commit the offence.”

Police had earlier said Siya and Chetan deleted their chats in order to destroy evidence of the conspiracy. Their phones have been sent for forensic analysis. Moments before Ketan was pushed off the cliff, Siya took Ketan’s phone and handed it over to his relative a while later, a probe revealed. Police are probing whether Siya deleted any evidence from the phone.

Sushant Kulkarni is a Special Correspondent with The Indian Express in Pune with 12+ years of experience covering issues related to Crime, Defence, Internal Security and Courts. He has been associated with the Indian Express since July 2010.

Sushant has extensively reported on law and order issues of Pune and surrounding area, Cyber crime, narcotics trade and terrorism. His coverage in the Defence beat includes operational aspects of the three services, the defence research and development and issues related to key defence establishments. He has covered several sensitive cases in the courts at Pune.

Sushant is an avid photographer, plays harmonica and loves cooking. ... Read More

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