PUNE — The money was already spent. Wedding shopping, done. A pre-wedding trip to Bali, booked and paid for.
Siya Goyal’s mother, Pooja, listed these facts this week as proof that her daughter was not a reluctant bride. The couple video-called each other.
They met regularly. They looked happy. That picture has shattered.
Siya is now in police custody, accused of pushing her fiancé Ketan Agarwal off Lohagad Fort. Her own father, Praveen Goyal, told India Today TV that if she is guilty, she should be thrown off the same fort.
The same fate. No delay. Praveen Goyal’s statement is raw.
It is also contradictory. He said he still finds it impossible to believe his daughter could do something like this. The shock of her arrest landed him in the ICU.
Yet he called for the harshest punishment without hesitation. A father demanding justice against his own child, even as he cannot accept the charges.
Police allege the crime was planned. Siya and an accomplice named Chetan, investigators say, plotted the murder together. The motive, according to Pune Police, was shame.
Siya reportedly refused to call off her engagement to Ketan because doing so would bring dishonor to her family. So the engagement went ahead.
The wedding was coming. And then, police say, Ketan was pushed from the fort. The Goyal family has pushed back hard against any suggestion they saw trouble coming.
No warning signs, Pooja Goyal said. The couple appeared happy. The family spent money on the wedding.
They deny hiding facts, a charge leveled by Ketan’s father. Praveen described his daughter as a simple girl who was excited about her upcoming wedding.
That description now sits beside the accusation that she plotted her fiancé’s death. Two versions of the same person. One father cannot reconcile them.
The case has drawn intense scrutiny. A woman accused of killing the man she was about to marry.
A father who wants her punished by the same method. A mother pointing to a paid-for Bali trip as evidence of normalcy. The investigation is ongoing.
Police have not disclosed the full evidentiary picture. What is known is that the wedding did not happen. What is known is that a man is dead.
What is known is that a family is fractured, and the father of the accused has publicly called for the maximum penalty — even if it means his own daughter. Praveen Goyal did not hedge.
He did not plead for leniency. He did not ask the public to wait for the full story. He said if she is guilty, push her off the same fort.
A blunt statement from a man who also said he was hospitalized from the shock of it all. The two things are both true.
The Goyal family insists there were no signs. No arguments. No reluctance.
Just a couple who video-called and a wedding that was supposed to happen. But the police say the evidence tells a different story. The father says the law should take its course, even if the course ends at the same cliff where Ketan Agarwal died.
