Pune, July 5: The family of Ketan Agarwal, the 26-year-old Pune businessman allegedly murdered at Lohagad Fort, has been struck by a second tragedy in less than three weeks. His grandfather, Devichand Agarwal, died of a cardiac arrest on Saturday night at around 9:45 pm, family members confirmed. He was 71.
According to the family, Devichand had been unwell ever since Ketan’s death on June 18. Relatives said he remained emotionally shattered and physically weak in the weeks that followed, and though no direct medical link has been established, they believe the trauma of losing his grandson took a fatal toll on his health.
His death is all the more poignant because Devichand had refused to suffer in silence. On June 27, despite his failing health, he joined the candlelight march held at the family’s housing society in Pimpri-Chinchwad, where residents demanded justice for Ketan. Fighting back tears, the 71-year-old told the gathering that the family had been betrayed by people they had known and trusted for years. He demanded capital punishment for both accused and urged investigators to widen the probe to everyone involved in arranging the marriage.
In one of his final media interactions, Devichand told ANI that the family had known the Goyal family for 35 years, and that Siya’s relatives had repeatedly assured them about the match despite allegedly knowing she was in love with someone else. Describing his grief, he said, “Mere budhape ka sahara chala gaya” — the support of my old age is gone. Just days before his death, he had appealed to the courts and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to deliver a verdict as quickly as possible. He died without seeing that justice.
Ketan Agarwal died on June 18 after falling into a nearly 400-foot gorge at Lohagad Fort near Lonavala, during a trek with his fiancée Siya Goyal, who had taken him there on the pretext of celebrating her birthday. What was first reported as an accidental fall was converted into a murder case after witness statements, call detail records and technical evidence pointed to a premeditated conspiracy. Police arrested Siya Goyal (20) and her alleged boyfriend Chetan Chaudhary (22), who investigators say plotted the killing because Siya wanted to escape her arranged marriage to Ketan, scheduled for this November in Rajasthan.
The investigation has moved rapidly in recent days. On Wednesday, Pune Police took Chetan Chaudhary to Lohagad Fort to recreate the crime scene using a dummy matching Ketan’s weight. On Thursday, Siya Goyal was taken to an open ground in Pune’s Lullanagar area, where the two accused had allegedly rehearsed the plan to push Ketan from the fort. Police also recovered the clothes Siya wore on the day of the incident from her residence. Investigators had additionally sought polygraph tests on both accused, with reports indicating the two have declined to undergo the examination.
Both accused have denied the allegations and have reportedly blamed each other over who pushed Ketan. The Maharashtra government has approved a fast-track trial and appointed senior advocate Ujjwal Nikam, famous for the 26/11 case prosecution, as Special Public Prosecutor.
For the Agarwal family, the grief has now doubled. Ketan’s father, Vishal Agarwal, who has led the family’s public fight for justice — meeting the Chief Minister and appealing to witnesses present at Lohagad Fort on June 18 to come forward — must now perform the last rites of his own father while the case his son’s death triggered is still being investigated.
Neighbours and well-wishers who gathered at the family home on Sunday described the double loss as unbearable. Within seventeen days, a household preparing for a wedding has instead witnessed two deaths — one the subject of a murder trial that has gripped Maharashtra, and one that relatives believe was caused by the heartbreak it left behind.
The Snapchat Message: Wedding Tickets That Aren’t Going to Happen
Investigators have found a Snapchat message allegedly sent by accused Siya Goyal to a friend, in which she indicated that her marriage to Ketan Agarwal was not going to take place. The message was purportedly sent in May, weeks before Agarwal’s death, a police official said on Saturday.
According to the purported chat, the conversation took place between May 23 and 24. In the exchange, Goyal allegedly asked her friend to send her Aadhaar card, saying it was needed for a wedding-related ticket booking, while telling her in the same breath that the wedding itself would not happen. The message, in Hinglish, asked the friend to send the front and back of her Aadhaar card for wedding tickets “jo hone nai wali par fir bhi bhej de” — tickets for a wedding that was not going to happen, but to send the card anyway. The friend later confirmed the document had been sent.
The timing is what makes the message significant. Agarwal’s family had already begun making travel bookings for relatives and friends and had sought guests’ names and Aadhaar details from Goyal’s family, meaning the wedding machinery was actively in motion on both sides even as Goyal was allegedly telling her friend it would never happen.
Police are now pursuing two threads. First, they are verifying the authenticity of the Snapchat message. Second, they will question the friend to ascertain whether she had any prior knowledge of the alleged conspiracy to eliminate Ketan. The friend’s name has not been revealed.
If verified, the message would place Goyal’s alleged knowledge that the marriage would not happen nearly a month before the June 18 incident at Lohagad Fort, a timeline element prosecutors could use to argue premeditation.
The case remains under investigation, with forensic reports, recovered digital data and the crime scene reconstructions expected to shape the police chargesheet in the weeks ahead.
