A death that Pune police first logged as a tragic accident at a hilltop fort has taken a sharp turn, after investigators said the two people now accused of killing Ketan Agrawal had studied episodes of Crime Patrol before the killing to understand how police probes work and how to stay ahead of them. The claim has reopened a long-running argument about whether crime based television shows, made to warn viewers about real dangers, end up teaching some viewers how to commit and cover up a crime instead.
What changed in the Ketan Agrawal case
Ketan Agrawal, 26, fell into a gorge while visiting Lohagad Fort near Pune on 18 June, and his death was initially treated as a tragic accident since he had gone there with his fiancée, Siya. Days later, the investigation took a dramatic turn. Police arrested Siya Goyal, 20, and her friend Chetan Chaudhary, 22, alleging that the two, who were in a relationship, had conspired to kill Agrawal by pushing him off the fort. Investigators now claim that Goyal and Chaudhary, the main accused in the case, had watched episodes of Crime Patrol before the killing specifically to understand how police investigations proceed and how the two of them might evade detection.
A pattern investigators keep running into
This is not the first time police in India have pointed to crime shows or crime thrillers while explaining how a killing was planned. In 2025, investigators in Rajasthan alleged that a man had modelled a murder on the Bollywood thriller Drishyam in an attempt to dodge the police. According to investigators, the accused, Ramesh Lohar, killed a 70 year old woman, Chandi Bai, to rob her jewellery, then burned her body and disposed of the remains in a lake, believing he could escape detection if the body was never recovered. When police examined his digital footprint, they found Google searches related to Drishyam and crime shows, along with queries such as 'How long does a body take to decompose?' and 'How do police catch criminals through mobile tracking?'
In March 2025, police arrested a man and his friend after a partially burnt body of a 62 year old man was found in Uttar Pradesh's Auraiya district. According to investigators, the main accused, Ramji Tiwari, confessed to killing his father at their home in Kanpur. Police alleged that he and his accomplice then transported the body by vehicle to Auraiya, poured petrol on it and set it on fire near a roadside canal in an attempt to destroy evidence. Police later said the accused had planned the disposal of the body after watching the Bollywood film Drishyam and the crime series Crime Patrol. Both men were arrested and subsequently sent to jail, according to investigators.
In 2025, police in Hyderabad arrested a 14 year old boy for allegedly murdering a 10 year old girl after she caught him trying to steal a cricket bat from her house. According to investigators, the teenager, who lived in the same neighbourhood, entered the building through the terrace to steal the victim's younger brother's cricket bat. Police alleged that when the girl confronted him and raised an alarm, he fatally stabbed her. During the investigation, police said the juvenile told investigators he enjoyed watching crime thrillers and reality crime shows on OTT platforms, and an Assistant Commissioner of Police also told reporters that the boy regularly watched CID and other crime shows on television.
Why crime shows can double as an instruction manual
UK psychotherapist Professor Sarah Niblock, CEO of the UK Council for Psychotherapy, argues that people's fascination with true crime comes from a 'vicarious thrill', the experience of danger and conflict through someone else's story without facing the risk themselves. That same pull, researchers say, is what keeps crime shows among the most watched programmes on Indian television, even as it raises questions about what viewers absorb along with the entertainment.
The Supreme Court, in its landmark 1995 Airwaves Judgment, delivered in the case Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting versus Cricket Association of Bengal, (1995) 2 SCC 161, observed that television wields a uniquely powerful influence because it enters people's homes directly and combines sound with visuals to shape public attitudes, values and behaviour.
A study by Dr Geeta and Dishant Singh, Assistant Professors at the School of Law, Lovely Professional University, Punjab, found that crime based television shows can influence how people think and behave, even though they are made to spread awareness and promote public safety. Popular programmes such as CID, Crime Patrol, Savdhaan India, Dial 100, Gumraah, Adalat and Byomkesh Bakshi consistently rank among the most watched crime series in the country. According to the researchers, frequent exposure to such shows can make viewers more suspicious of strangers, neighbours and even relatives, so that ordinary, harmless situations start to trigger fears of theft, assault and other crimes.
Are children and teenagers more susceptible
Possibly, yes. The American Academy of Pediatrics says children and adolescents are more vulnerable to the influence of violent media than adults are. According to the AAP, children under eight often struggle to distinguish fantasy from reality, which makes them more likely to imitate what they see on screen, and repeated exposure to violent content can also make children perceive the world as more dangerous than it actually is.
Even so, the AAP does not conclude that violent media alone causes serious crime. Researchers say criminal behaviour is shaped by multiple factors together, including family environment, peer influence, childhood trauma, mental health, poverty, substance abuse and impulsive behaviour. Crime shows, in this reading, may influence how a crime is committed by supplying a method or a script to follow, but they rarely explain why someone decides to commit a crime in the first place.
Why on-screen punishment doesn't scare off copycats
One puzzle that keeps coming up in these cases is why the punishments shown in crime shows, which almost always end with the culprit caught and convicted, fail to deter people who then go on to copy the crime itself. Part of the answer, according to researchers, is that some offenders focus far more on the mechanics of the crime, how it can be committed and concealed, than on its eventual consequences. In some cases, repeated exposure to sensationalised crime stories can end up normalising violence or simply handing over ideas for how a crime could be carried out, particularly to people who were already inclined to offend before they ever watched a single episode.
