The father of the woman accused of pushing her fiancé to his death from a Pune hill fort says he wants the same done to her — if she is guilty. Praveen Goyal told India Today TV that Siya Goyal should be thrown off Lohagad Fort. That is where police say Ketan Agarwal died.
Goyal said it plainly: if the courts find her guilty, she gets the same fate. He also said he cannot believe the charges.
The shock of her arrest put him in the ICU, he said. “I still find it impossible to believe my daughter could do something like this,” he told the channel. Yet he insists that if convicted, there should be no delay in the harshest punishment.
That is the knot at the center of this case. A father who says his daughter is innocent — and also says she should die for the crime.
Pune Police allege Siya and a man named Chetan planned the murder. According to investigators, Siya feared the shame of calling off her engagement to Ketan. So, they say, she plotted his death instead.
Her parents reject any suggestion they saw trouble coming. Her mother, Pooja Goyal, said there were no warning signs. The couple video-called each other.
They met regularly. They looked happy, she said.
To counter claims Siya did not want to marry Ketan, Pooja pointed to the money spent on wedding shopping and a pre-wedding trip to Bali. The Goyal family also denied allegations from Ketan’s father that they had hidden facts. Praveen described his daughter as a simple girl.
Excited about her wedding, he said. The investigation is still open.
Police have not released the full evidence. But the father’s public call for the death penalty — even for his own child — has cut through the usual silence of accused families. It is a rare thing.
Most parents of the accused defend their child to the end. They question the police. They hire lawyers.
They fight. Goyal is doing none of that.
He is saying, in effect, that the law should take its course, and if that course leads to the same cliff his daughter is accused of using, so be it. That position does not make sense to everyone. How can a man believe his daughter is innocent and also demand her execution?
The two statements sit together in the same interview, unresolved. Goyal offers no bridge between them.
He just holds both. The case has drawn intense scrutiny since the allegations emerged. A couple that seemed happy.
A wedding that was planned. A trip to Bali already taken. Then a death on a fort, and an arrest.
Pune Police say Siya and Chetan acted together. They have not said what evidence ties them to the scene.
They have not said what motive drove the plan, beyond Siya’s fear of family shame. The Goyals say they spent money on the wedding. They say the couple looked happy.
They say there were no signs. Praveen Goyal says his daughter should be pushed off the same fort if she is guilty.
He also says he finds it impossible to believe she could do something like this. Both things are true to him. The investigation will decide which one is true to the law.
