Trio first planned to hire contract killers to eliminate Ketan Agarwal, changed plan later: Police

PUNE: Rural Police on Monday said the accused in the Ketan Agarwal murder case had initially considered hiring contract killers to eliminate him before changing the plan.Ketan (26), a builder from Gahunje, was allegedly pushed off Lohagad Fort by his fiancée Siya Goyal (20) and her boyfriend Chetan Chaudhary (22) on June 18.Superintendent of police (Pune Rural) Sandeep Singh Gill said, “The latest arrested accused, Ritesh Hange (22), played a part in the conspiracy. His role was established after we cracked the deleted messages during the digital forensic analysis.”Hange, arrested on Friday night, is accused of being part of the conspiracy with key accused Chetan and Siya, who are currently in judicial custody. “The deleted messages revealed that Ritesh and Chetan were classmates during their MBA course. They had discussed various ways to eliminate Ketan. After deliberations, they considered hiring contract killers. Ritesh later backed out of the plan,” Gill said.According to the SP, Siya and Chetan subsequently abandoned the idea of involving outsiders and decided to execute the murder themselves. “Investigations revealed that Chetan and Ritesh had initially discussed causing ‘body harm’ to Ketan. Their conversations later progressed to eliminating him, and they began considering hiring someone to carry out the murder,” Gill said.Before arresting Ritesh, police cross-verified his statements with witness accounts and technical evidence. Investigators said Ritesh had deleted chat messages and call logs to avoid suspicion, but forensic experts successfully recovered the data. “The recovered digital evidence revealed his involvement in the conspiracy,” Gill said.Police are now trying to establish Ritesh’s exact whereabouts on the day of the murder and determine whether he had any role at the crime scene. “We are studying technical evidence, including cellphone location data and CCTV footage, to establish his location on June 18,” Gill said.Investigators have also found that Chetan contacted Ritesh immediately after the murder. “Chetan met Ritesh immediately after murdering Ketan. Ritesh was the first person Chetan called after the murder,” Gill added.You Can Also Check: Gold Rate in Pune | Silver Rate in Pune | Bank Holidays in Pune | Public Holidays in Pune | Petrol Price in Pune | Diesel Price in Pune | CNG Price in Pune | LPG Price in PuneStay updated with the latest Pune news. Download the TOI App.