He Thought It Was A Romantic Trek: Inside The Final 72 Hours Of Ketan Agarwal's Life Before His Fatal Fall

Last Updated:June 24, 2026, 20:32 IST

At the heart of the conspiracy is Ketan's twenty-year-old fiancée, Siya Goyal, and her alleged lover, twenty-two-year-old Chetan Chaudhary

The horrific murder of twenty-six-year-old Pune real estate director Ketan Vishal Agarwal has sent shockwaves through Maharashtra’s business elite, exposing a meticulously planned execution disguised as a tragic holiday mishap. While initial reports registered his fatal four-hundred-foot plunge from the historic Lohagad Fort as an accidental slip during a weekend trek, a gruelling investigation by the Lonavala Rural Police has blown the case wide open. At the heart of the conspiracy is his twenty-year-old fiancée, Siya Goyal, and her alleged lover, twenty-two-year-old Chetan Chaudhary.

Far from a spontaneous crime of passion, forensic data and surveillance footage reveal that the final seventy-two hours of Ketan’s life were a harrowing countdown orchestrated to ensure he would never walk off that cliff alive. As investigators piece together the timeline, it has become evident that the plot moved from psychological manipulation to physical tracking, a culmination of a desperate attempt by the accused to escape an arranged marriage alliance without fracturing their wealthy families’ social standing.

Stalking and the Burner Phone Trap

The sinister final phase of the plot began in earnest on the morning of Sunday, June 16, as Chetan Chaudhary systematically laid the groundwork for an airtight alibi. To mislead tower-dumping analysis and avoid leaving a digital trail near Lonavala, Chaudhary left his personal mobile phone active at his retail shop in Bibwewadi, Pune. He then surreptitiously borrowed a handset belonging to one of his retail employees. This device, with its mobile data deliberately turned off to avoid continuous GPS logging, effectively turned into a ghost handset, used solely for encrypted coordination with Siya.

By Monday, June 17, the trap was fully set. Siya Goyal successfully convinced an unsuspecting Ketan to plan a Tuesday morning trek to Lohagad Fort, framing it as a romantic getaway to ease pre-wedding jitters. What Ketan did not know was that every detail of their plan, including their departure time and vehicle registration numbers, was being relayed to Chaudhary via the employee’s handset. Chaudhary spent that evening mapping out the terrain of the fort, identifying steep drop-offs and dense blind spots where the lack of guardrails would make a forced shove look identical to a monsoon-adjacent slip.

The Fatal Trek and the Wardrobe Flaw

The timeline reached its grim conclusion on the morning of Tuesday, June 18. At approximately 7 am, Ketan and Siya departed from Pune. Chaudhary followed them closely on a motorbike, maintaining a calculated distance. Upon arriving at the base of Lohagad Fort, Chaudhary made a critical error that would later shatter his alibi. To conceal his identity from the site’s security apparatus and trekking crowds, he wore a heavy winter hoodie and a headset despite the stifling June heat. This extreme wardrobe anomaly immediately drew the attention of local vendors and was clearly captured on base-level closed-circuit television cameras.

As Ketan and Siya ascended to a secluded, wind-swept vantage point, Chaudhary stalked them from behind, waiting for the perfect moment when the morning mist obscured the view of other trekkers. At a precise cliff edge, while Ketan was completely disarmed, the ambush was executed, sending the young director plunging into the gorge. Within twenty-four hours, Siya attempted to seal the cover-up by posting a performative grief tribute on Instagram. However, by cross-referencing the distinctive summer hoodie on security footage with over two thousand call logs between the co-conspirators, the police dismantled the facade, ensuring that the last seventy-two hours of calculated malice ended in a magistrate’s arrest warrant.

About the Author

Pathikrit Sen Gupta

Pathikrit Sen Gupta is a Senior Associate Editor with News18.com and likes to cut a long story short. He writes sporadically on Politics, Sports, Global Affairs, Space, Entertainment, And Food. He tra...Read More

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