By: Raqif Makhdoomi
Went to fort with his “To be wife” but never returned back . A 25 years old Ketan Agarwal who went to Pune’s Lohagad Fort with his Fiancee Siya Goyal . Ketan and Siya were going to get married six months from now but Siya had planned something else . As per Siya she was forced into marriage with Ketan . Siya was already in love with Chetan Chaudhary who along with Siya planned the murder . The incident took place on 18th of June . At first the incident was treated as accident . But it was only after ketan’s sister found Siya’s statements contradictory she become suspicious which made the reality behind the incident come out . When Siya told ketan’s sister that he fell down while clicking her picture she became suspicious because katen is a professional tracker and he can’t make such a mistake . When she confronted Siya with this statement , Siya started making excuses and this is where things started to change .
It’s not that ketan belonged to a poor family or he was not a successful person . He at the age of 25 was already serving as a Director in the family’s success group . A very lavish wedding scheduled for November was being planned which was going to be held at the Ananta Resort in Udaipur. Siya’s mother told Hindustan times that venue booking alone coasted 3 crore rupees , with 5 crore rupees estimated budget for wedding . The expenses don’t stop here . As per the Police sources the total celebrations could have coasted around 14 crore rupees . There were two private aircraft arranged to ferry guests to the venue . A full lavish wedding was awaiting her but Siya choose to stay in jail . When ketan was pushed to death the preparations were under way. Ketan’s family never knew that they will have to prepare for his last rituals instead of his wedding . And Siya’s family never knew that they’ll now have to meet her in the jail , instead of meeting here at her husband’s place . Both the families are in shock , they were never expecting that their happiness shall turn into sorrow . Siya was forced into marriage but how does it justify killing keta? Siya told police that she spoke to ketan about she not being interested in the marriage but even after her objection he remind committed and continued with the preparation despite her objection . Here we have a lesson to learn . Had Siya not been forced to marry Ketan for whatever reason . Two familes could have been saved from the grief and sorrow they are witnessing . It’s still considered as a matter of pride by a girl’s father that he got his daughter married where he wanted and didn’t let his daughter express her choice . Some daughters turn Siya while as some decide to live a life a compromise . Neither is the Siya’s way justified nor of those who live on compromise . The investigators of the case are of the opinion that Siya who was engaged to ketan feared social consequences of breaking the engagement . This murder case must serve as an eye opener for those people who are always ready to poke their nose in the affairs of others. Had the society understood that it’s completely normal to break off an engagement or even have a divorce . We wouldn’t have had come across the heart breaking incident . Social stigma is root cause to many things , it’s just that we have normalized it instead of speaking about it .
Chetan who’s one of the accused of the murder case for whom Siya allegedly killed ketan . His family has a different version to narrate . According to his family Chetan is being falsely implicated into the case . Chetan stood far away and has nothing to do with the murder , claims his family . According to Chetan’s father , Chetan told him that he stood far away and has nothing to do with the murder . He’s being implicated into murder just because both Siya and ketan belong to a wealthy family . His father claims that they have never seen the girl in question . Chetan’s father has accused media of unnecessarily hyping the issue . But the calls records of Siya and Chetan narrate a complete different story . As per the call records available. Siya and Chetan spoke 2004 times between January 1 to June 18 , spending around 238 hours on call during nearly six month period. But before you come to conclusion that having call records means being involved in crime. Let me clear it as a law student that this is in no way proof that chaten has a roll to play in this murder . This is a proof of they being in relationship but this is in no way a proof against him . There are many judgments where the Hon’ble courts have said that , call records doesn’t show involvement . The CCTV visuals of the fort clearly show that he was there in the fort what did he play a role in the murder the proof of that is yet to come out . According to police Chaten switched off his mobile internet at around 7 am on June 18th and remained offline till 5:40 pm . As per the investigators he left his phone deliberately at his shop and carried phone of his employee . Just to prevent police from tracking his location . Police has to prove the claims in the court and each claim has to be supported by the evidence . As per police the framework drawn by the chaten raised suspicion by itself . All the phone calls made to chaten’s number were answered not by him but the people working at his shop . Police seems to have very carefully till now tried to connect dots to ensure the chain of events doesn’t break . For those who are law students , Advocates or aware about law must knowing chain of events also play a very important role in proving a crime .
Ketan’s murder case is not the first case that we are coming across . There have been many such incidents before ,where a boyfriend got killed by his Girlfriend or Husband by his wife . The shocking Raja Raghuvanshi murder case . Wife killed her husband on honeymoon along with her boyfriend . They had hired contract killers . Sonam was already in relationship with his boyfriend and didn’t wanted to continue the marriage .The blue drum horror of meerut, the Saurabh Rajput murder case . The husband was killed and then put in drum . Wife planned the murder along with his lover . The suicide that sparked a debate nationwide The Autal Subhash case . Autal made various videos where he accused of being mentally harassed, false allegation put on him , Extortion and financial harassment by his wife’s family . Bengaluru burning case where love turned into fire. Kiran was tied up by his wife and then set him on fire , he sustained various injuries and passed away . Another blue Drum case . The Alwar case , no different story wife had an affair and wanted to get rid of her husband after veeru was murdered his body was cut into pieces and then put into drum . These are the few case that have been reported . Most of the cases don’t get media attention . According to the NCB data , men also face domestic violence and also harassment. But there are no laws that punish for harassing a man . law doesn’t recognize a man getting harassed or facing domestic violence.
It’s high time that laws are farmed to prevent men from being harassed and put to domestic violence .
The writer is a law student and a human rights activist .
