The picturesque cliffs of Lohagad Fort in Pune, Maharashtra, are known for their breathtaking views and lush greenery, drawing thousands of trekkers every year. However, on June 18, 2026, this historic landmark became the backdrop for a chilling, meticulously planned crime that has shocked the nation. Ketan Vishal Agrawal, a 26-year-old real estate director and experienced trekker, fell 400 feet to his death into a deep gorge. Initially reported by his fiancee, Siya Goyal, as a tragic slip due to heavy winds, a deeper investigation by the Pune Rural Police has exposed a horrifying reality. It was not an accident; it was a cold-blooded murder orchestrated by Siya and her secret lover, Chetan Babulal Chaudhary.
From a deliberately sabotaged pre-wedding trip to Bali to a staged snake attack, the details emerging from the Pune fort murder investigation reveal a sinister plot spanning months.
The Perfect Match That Wasn’t: A Tale of Two Lives
Ketan Vishal Agrawal was a young man with a bright future. As a resident of Gahunje in the Pune district, he successfully managed his family’s thriving real estate firm. In February 2026, his family arranged his marriage to Siya Goyal. From the outside, the couple seemed perfectly happy, and the families spared no expense in preparing for a grand future.
A Royal Wedding in the Making
The Agrawal family was planning a magnificent celebration.
The Venue: A historic luxury palace in Udaipur, Rajasthan, booked for November 2026.
The Logistics: Two special charter aircraft had already been arranged to transport wedding guests.
The Birthday Plans: For Siya’s upcoming birthday on June 20, Ketan had blocked 40 premium rooms at a luxury resort in Mahabaleshwar.
Ketan’s mother frequently took Siya shopping and out for family dinners. “I met her many times,” his devastated mother recalled. “We went shopping and out for dinner together frequently, yet it never crossed our minds that she could be this kind of person.”
The Secret Lover: Chetan Babulal ChaudharyWhile the Agrawal family was busy preparing for the royal wedding, Siya was leading a double life. For over a year, she had been deeply involved with 22-year-old Chetan Babulal Chaudhary, a small shop owner residing in Kondhwa, Pune.
Despite the upcoming wedding, Siya refused to break off her relationship with Chetan. According to Superintendent of Police Sandip Singh Gill, call detail records (CDR) revealed that between January 1 and June 18, 2026, Siya and Chetan exchanged an astonishing 2,004 phone calls, totaling more than 238 hours of conversation. Unwilling to marry Ketan but lacking the courage to call off the arranged match, the duo decided on a permanent, horrific alternative: Ketan Agrawal had to be eliminated.
Chronology of a Chilling Conspiracy
The investigation indicates that the plan to murder Ketan was not an impulsive act but a calculated strategy mapped out over several weeks.
| Date | Event / Attempted Plot | Outcome |
| May 31, 2026 | First reconnaissance visit to Lohagad Fort by Ketan and Siya. | Siya maps the terrain and notes the deep, unprotected gorges. |
| June 6, 2026 | Scheduled departure for a pre-wedding photoshoot in Bali, Indonesia. | Sabotaged: Ketan’s passport is stolen, forcing the cancellation of the trip. |
| June 14, 2026 | Second visit to Lohagad Fort; first active murder attempt. | Failed: A staged snake attack fails to panic Ketan into falling over the edge. |
| June 18, 2026 | The final pre-birthday picnic ruse at Lohagad Fort. | Executed: Ketan is struck with a blunt object and pushed into a 400-foot gorge. |
| June 19, 2026 | Rescue teams recover Ketan’s body. Siya posts a mourning tribute on Instagram. | Police register an Accidental Death Report (ADR) and begin tracking digital footprints. |
Step 1: The Curious Case of the Stolen Passport
The first major red flag in the timeline occurred on June 6, 2026, when Ketan and Siya, accompanied by Ketan’s sister and Siya’s brother, Sahil, set out for Mumbai International Airport. They were scheduled to fly to Bali, Indonesia, for a lavish pre-wedding photoshoot.
According to Ketan’s father, Vishal Agrawal, the group checked all travel documents while sitting inside the car. All passports, foreign currency, credit cards, and driving licenses were securely placed inside a single travel pouch kept in the vehicle.
However, during a brief halt at a highway food mall, Siya claimed she forgot her mobile phone and went back to the car alone. Upon arriving at the Mumbai airport terminal, the pouch was opened, and only Ketan’s passport was missing. Because of this bizarre discrepancy, the entire international trip had to be canceled, and a frustrated Ketan returned home.
The police have since established that Siya deliberately stole and destroyed Ketan’s passport. The logic behind the theft was simple yet dark: executed within the remote, unfamiliar terrain of Bali, a staged accident would be difficult to control and would invite intense international scrutiny. The conspirators needed Ketan to remain in Pune, where they had already selected the perfect location for his demise.
Step 2: The Failed Snake Attack of June 14
On June 14, just days after the failed Bali trip, Siya convinced Ketan to go trekking at Lohagad Fort. Standing at an elevation of approximately 3,400 feet, the fort features sheer drops and complex pathways. Chetan Chaudhary was covertly tracking the couple during this excursion.
The initial plan was to exploit basic human survival instincts. While Ketan was standing near a steep precipice, Chetan and Siya attempted to stage a sudden snake sighting, hoping to induce panic. They anticipated that Ketan would instinctively jump backward blindly, sending himself over the edge.
However, Ketan, an experienced and disciplined trekker, remained calm. He did not panic, maintained his footing, and unknowingly survived the first attempt on his life.
Step 3: The Fatal Pre-Birthday Picnic Ruse
Determined to complete the crime before the lavish wedding preparations advanced any further, Siya utilized her upcoming birthday on June 19 as the ultimate trap. She threw a tantrum and fought with Ketan, insisting on a private, pre-birthday celebration on June 18 at Lohagad Fort.
Ketan, who was already organizing a massive surprise party for her in Mahabaleshwar, conceded to her wishes. On June 18, at 8:20 AM, Ketan left his residence, arriving at the fort with Siya and a small group of acquaintances.
Alibis and Digital Deception
To avoid police tracking, Chetan Chaudhary went to extraordinary lengths to establish an alibi:
He left his personal mobile phone at his retail shop in Kondhwa.
He instructed his employees to answer any incoming calls to make it appear as though he was working.
He deactivated his mobile internet connection entirely from 7:00 AM to 5:40 PM.
He traveled to Lohagad Fort on a two-wheeler using an employee’s mobile phone for emergency coordination with Siya.
When the trekking group reached an isolated point near a steep cliff face where strong winds were blowing, Chetan emerged from his hiding place. Seizing a moment when Ketan was distracted, the duo struck him on the head with a blunt object, rendering him semi-conscious or disoriented, and shoved him over the 400-foot drop.
By 10:45 AM, less than three hours after Ketan had left his home, Siya’s mother called Ketan’s family to report that he had tragically slipped and fallen into the valley while taking photographs.
The Masterpiece of Deception: A Grieving Instagram Post
Following the murder, Siya attempted to construct a narrative of a devastated bride-to-be. On June 19—her actual birthday—as rescue teams from the Lonavala Rural Police, Shivdurg Mitra, and the Maval Wildlife Protection Organisation were battling rugged terrain to retrieve Ketan’s shattered body, Siya took to social media.
She uploaded an emotional Instagram story featuring a video montage of Ketan talking happily in a car and the two of them dancing to a romantic song. The caption read:
“You left me on my birthday. You left when we were so close to getting married. I still can’t understand why you did this to me. I had dreams, questions I’ll never get answers to. Why did you leave me when I loved you so much? Rest in peace. Mere dil ko pata hai ki tu yahi hai. Wapas aaja (My heart knows that you are here. Come back).”
This public display of grief was a calculated move designed to cement the narrative of an accidental fall and deflect any potential suspicion away from her.
How the Suspicion Hardened into a Murder Probe
The local authorities initially filed an Accidental Death Report (ADR), attributing the fall to the notorious high winds and slippery conditions of the fort during the monsoon onset. However, two critical factors shattered this facade: the intuition of an experienced father and a massive digital footprint.
The Behavioral Anomaly
When the rescue teams brought Ketan’s body up from the gorge, his family noticed an immediate red flag. Vishal Agrawal observed that Siya displayed a complete lack of genuine emotion or grief. “When the police came with his body, Siya didn’t show any reaction. When a woman’s fiance or husband dies, she feels sad, but there was no such sadness in her behavior,” he noted.
Four days after the funeral, Siya visited the Agrawal residence. During a conversation with Ketan’s sister, her inconsistent answers and defensive demeanor raised deep suspicions. Convinced that his son—an elite trekker who knew the topography of Lohagad well—would not simply slip, Vishal Agrawal filed a formal complaint demanding a thorough investigation.
The Digital Blueprint
The Lonavala Rural Police and the Local Crime Branch shifted their focus to technical analysis. When investigators pulled Siya’s mobile records, the discovery of the 2,004 calls to Chetan Chaudhary broke the case wide open.
Furthermore, when the cyber cell analyzed Chetan’s phone logs, they discovered his deactivated internet status on the day of the crime. Police tracked down and interrogated every individual who had called Chetan’s shop number on June 18. The shop workers quickly cracked under pressure, admitting that Chetan was not at the store and had instructed them to lie about his whereabouts.
Arrests, Confession, and Legal ProceedingsAt approximately 2:00 AM on Tuesday, the Local Crime Branch detained Chetan Chaudhary from his residence. Confronted with unassailable digital evidence, tower location data from the alternative phone, and the testimonies of his own shop workers, Chetan broke down and confessed to the entire murder conspiracy.
Based on his detailed statement, a police team arrested Siya Goyal at 7:00 AM the same morning. Both individuals have been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for murder and criminal conspiracy.
The accused were produced before the Pune District Court, which remanded both Siya Goyal and Chetan Chaudhary to seven days of strict police custody to allow detectives to recover the blunt weapon used in the assault and locate Ketan’s destroyed passport.
A Family Destroyed: The Demand for Justice
The Agrawal household remains consumed by profound grief and anger. A wedding that was supposed to bring two families together has instead resulted in a nightmare.
Speaking to members of the press outside the courtroom, a broken Vishal Agrawal questioned the moral decay that leads to such calculated cruelty:
“If she didn’t want to get married, she could have simply refused; we would have cancelled the wedding immediately. Why did they decide to take such a drastic step? What kind of mindset do they have? Their mindset is so cruel that someone’s 26-year-old son could be killed. Society needs to take note of such a cruel mindset. Where does this ideology come from – their family, their upbringing?”
Ketan’s mother, completely overwhelmed by tears, demanded nothing less than the capital punishment for the perpetrators. “My son is no more. Siya and her boyfriend are entirely responsible for it. She betrayed me and lied,” she stated.
The Pune fort murder serves as a stark reminder of how digital forensics can unravel even the most carefully plotted cover-ups. The Pune Rural Police are continuing their investigation to ensure a watertight case that stands up to scrutiny in a fast-track court.