The very first clue in the investigation into Ketan's death came from something oddly out of place. Officers discovered that within just 18 days, Siya had insisted three separate times on visiting Lohagarh fort. Trying to figure out why she was so fixated on that one spot led them to a piece of CCTV footage showing a young man entering the fort wearing a hoodie. A question immediately formed in the minds of the team: in roughly 33 degree Celsius heat, why was this man wearing a hoodie at all? That single question became the first link in the chain of evidence.
At first glance the footage looked ordinary
As the investigation moved forward, the recordings from cameras at the spot began answering questions one by one. On first viewing nothing seemed unusual. Every interaction between Siya and Ketan looked perfectly normal. The footage covering the morning of June 18, from 9 am to 1 pm, contained nothing that would raise suspicion. The team had almost wrapped up its review of the CCTV and was about to leave when their attention settled on a suspicious young man who was wearing both a hoodie and headphones.
Checking the temperature on Google deepened the suspicion
When the team looked up the temperature for that day on Google, it turned out to be around 33 degrees Celsius. Several questions arose about a person moving about in a hoodie in that kind of heat. The footage was played again, this time with full focus on the man in the hoodie.
The recording showed the young man running up from below. The moment he spotted Ketan and Siya, he suddenly stopped and sat down. According to the police, the man in the hoodie made a gesture with his hand, to which Siya responded with a faint signal of her own.
Siya kept glancing back before he arrived
On closer examination, investigators also noticed that before the man in the hoodie reached the spot, Siya was repeatedly turning around to look behind her. But the moment that man saw Siya and Ketan and sat down, hand signals passed between him and Siya.
The man entered the fort without buying a ticket
According to the police, a ticket has to be purchased to enter the fort. Because of a mobile network problem, Ketan was unable to transfer the money online to buy one. For that reason, Ketan and Siya stood in the same place for some time. During this period, the man in the hoodie sat for a short while and then walked up without buying a ticket. As part of the inquiry, the team also visited the scene. After examining the location and the CCTV, the police became convinced that something was wrong and that the case needed a deeper investigation.
Key layers emerged during questioning of the sister
The police questioned Ketan's sister Sanjana for roughly 8 to 9 hours. After this lengthy questioning, their suspicion grew firmer. The family said that on June 4 they had not allowed Ketan to go to Lohagarh. Ketan later told his mother that Siya had cried a great deal because she could not make the trip. On learning this, his mother gave permission for the June 14 visit. Ketan had also told his mother that Siya had pressured him heavily to go to Lohagarh.
The June 18 'surprise' that turned deadly
On June 17, Ketan told his mother that a friend of Siya's had planned a surprise for the next day, June 18, and that this was why he was given permission to go. The investigation revealed that Siya had allegedly planned to pretend to be tired and sit down once they reached the fort. Treating that as a signal, Chetan was to carry the plot forward. It is alleged that the moment Siya sat down, Ketan also stopped, and at that very moment Chetan pushed him into a ravine. The police are currently conducting a thorough investigation and are examining all technical and circumstantial evidence.
