PUNE: A Pune court on Monday extended the police custody of Siya Goyal and Chetan Chaudhary till July 3 to enable investigators to carry out further probe into the murder of 25-year-old Ketan Agarwal and establish how the crime was executed.
The Pune Rural Police sought an extension of custody, saying that while the investigation had established a criminal conspiracy, more time was needed to prove that Agarwal was murdered by Siya Goyal at Lohagad Fort.
Siya Goyal and her boyfriend, Chetan Chaudhary, were arrested on charges of criminal conspiracy and murdering Agarwal, who was engaged to Siya and was scheduled to marry her.
Seeking seven more days of police custody, the prosecution told the court that investigators needed to take both accused to Lohagad Fort to recreate the crime scene and recover several items linked to the case.
Police said they were yet to recover Agarwal's passport, which was allegedly torn by Siya before their planned trip to Bali.
"We have not got Ketan's passport that was torn by Siya before their Bali trip. The passport was torn by Siya to cancel the Bali trip. We have to ascertain why Siya and Chetan conducted a recce and establish their intention. We also have to recover the clothes Chetan wore on the day of the crime. Retrieval and analysis of Ketan's mobile data and digital records is still underway, and it will take time to connect the dots. Therefore, the court should grant seven days' police custody," the police submitted.
The court, however, granted only five more days of police custody.
Opposing the plea, Chetan's counsel, Ram Sahane, argued that his client's name appeared only twice in the case and that the police had already carried out substantial investigation.
He contended that there was no justification for further custodial interrogation and alleged that his client was being subjected to a "media trial" despite having no major role in the case.