Pune realtor's murder: Judicial custody for Goyal, Chaudhary; cops don't press for polygraph tests

PUNE: A Pune court on Friday remanded Siya Goyal and her alleged lover Chetan Chaudhary in 14-day judicial custody in connection with the murder of 25-year-old Pune realtor Ketan Agarwal.

Police sought an extension of their custodial remand, but the court declined the request. Some witnesses who were present at the crime spot have now come forward to provide information, a senior police official told reporters while talking about the probe.

Goyal (20) and Chaudhary (22) are accused of pushing Agarwal to his death from a cliff at Lohagad Fort in Pune district on June 18. Agarwal and Goyal were set to marry in November this year.

The two accused were produced before Judicial Magistrate First Class A M Vibhute after the expiry of their police custody.

The prosecution sought three-day extension of police custody, arguing that data recovered from the mobile phones of Goyal and Chaudhary contained chats having coded language, and that their custodial interrogation was necessary to decipher the conversations.

The prosecution informed the court that police had conducted a panchnama (crime spot survey) at the spot where Goyal allegedly disposed of Agarwal's passport while travelling towards Mumbai.

"Investigators also carried out a panchnama at the place where Goyal and Chaudhary allegedly rehearsed how to kill Agarwal," said assistant public prosecutor Rajashree Virkud.

She said police had recovered another mobile phone belonging to Goyal and sent it to the forensic science laboratory (FSL) for examination.

"Data from the phones seized earlier has already been retrieved, and investigators have received the forensic report. The recovered chats contain coded language, including nicknames and emojis, whose meaning can be explained only by the accused," she said.

Custodial interrogation was required to confront the two accused together and verify the context of the recovered digital evidence, Virkud told court.

However, Goyal's advocate Vipul Dushing opposed the plea, saying police had already seized electronic devices and other material required for the investigation. Dushing said his client was fully cooperating with the probe.

Chaudhary's counsel contended that the prosecution had no concrete evidence warranting further custody and was conducting a "fishing inquiry" based on probabilities.

After hearing the arguments, Judicial Magistrate (First Class) A M Vibhute remanded both the accused in judicial custody till July 16.

The Pune Rural police did not press for polygraph tests on Goyal and Chaudhary.

When asked by the judge on the plea by police seeking permission to conduct polygraph tests on the two accused, the prosecution said it is not pressing the plea.

A polygraph test, also called a 'lie detector test', measures physiological responses like blood pressure, pulse, respiration and sweat when questions pertaining to the incident are answered.

Speaking to reporters, Superintendent of Police (Pune rural) Sandip Singh Gill said some key witnesses who were present at the crime spot had come forward and their statements were being recorded.

Asked about the financial transactions between the two accused, he said, "We have already questioned several individuals as part of the investigation. A second mobile phone has been recovered. Forensic evidence is being examined... Details regarding how much money Ketan had given to Siya will be disclosed at the appropriate time."

"We have evidence to establish that a murder was committed," Gill added.