Lohagad Fort case: Police say Siya killed Ketan, but proving murder in court won't be easy

The Pune Police may have built a compelling murder theory in the Lohagad Fort death case, but turning that theory into a conviction is likely to be far more difficult.

Investigators allege that 20-year-old Siya Goyal, unhappy with her arranged marriage to 26-year-old Ketan Agarwal and in a relationship with 22-year-old Chetan Chaudhary, conspired to kill her fiancé by pushing him off a cliff at Lohagad Fort on June 18. 

Police claim the duo planned the crime through cafe meetings, rehearsals, and even made an earlier failed attempt.

However, these allegations are yet to be proven in court. Both Siya and Chetan are accused, not convicted.

The biggest challenge for the prosecution will be proving that Ketan was deliberately pushed and did not accidentally slip or lose his balance. That distinction could decide the outcome of the trial.

The case appears to rest largely on circumstantial evidence. In a withdrawn plea seeking lie-detector tests, Pune Rural Police reportedly admitted they had neither a direct eyewitness nor conclusive evidence identifying who pushed Ketan, relying instead on alleged confessions made by the accused.

Senior advocate Tanveer Ahmed Mir, who represented the Talwar couple in the Aarushi-Hemraj murder appeal, says confessions made in police custody carry little evidentiary value and cannot by themselves secure a conviction.

Under Indian law, murder can be proved without eyewitnesses, but only if the chain of circumstantial evidence is complete.

The Supreme Court's landmark judgments in Hanumant v. State of Madhya Pradesh (1952) and Sharad Birdhichand Sarda v State of Maharashtra (1984) laid down that every circumstance must be fully established, point only towards guilt and rule out every reasonable alternative explanation.

Unless prosecutors can conclusively establish that Ketan's fall was the result of an intentional push, the case may struggle to meet the legal threshold for conviction, despite the sensational allegations.