Ketan Agarwal Murder: Police To Analyze Accused Chetan Chaudhary’s Walk – Here’s Why | Today’s news

As the investigation into the murder of Pune-based realtor Ketan Agarwal continues, police are planning to conduct a gait analysis of arrested accused Chetan Chaudhary. Police told the court on Monday that they plan to compare CCTV footage of his movement in Lohagad Fort with the newly created video.

What is gait analysis?

A police official told PTI that gait analysis is the study of a person’s walking pattern and is used to identify suspects from CCTV footage by comparing distinguishing features such as stride length, posture and limb movements.

The Pune rural police plan to compare the CCTV footage showing Chaudhary’s movement in the fort with the newly created video, he said.

Read also | Siya Goyal, lover googled how to kill fiance, later deleted history

According to the police, the analysis became necessary because Chaudhary was wearing a hooded sweatshirt covering his face on the day of the crime on June 18 in an attempt to hide his face from CCTV cameras.

He said the police would recreate the CCTV footage by making him wear a similar hoodie and walk to the same place in the fort in a similar manner.

“We plan to conduct a gait analysis of Chaudhary. We have CCTV footage showing him walking in a hoodie to hide his face. The gait analysis will compare his movement in the CCTV footage with the newly created video to see if the gait patterns match,” he added.

Remand of Chetan Chaudhary and Siya Goyal extended

On Monday, the two accused, Chetan Chaudhary and Siya Goyal, were produced in court after their initial police custody ended.

Investigators sought to extend their remand, arguing that various aspects, such as the exact crime scene in the fort and the victim’s missing passport, should be investigated.

The prosecution told the court that the investigation showed that the pair had visited the fort to identify the spot where Agarwal was to be thrown off the cliff.

Read also | The police take Siya, Chetan to Lohagad Fort to recreate the scene of Chetan’s murder

“The police want to interrogate both the accused in this regard and hence the extension of custody is necessary,” said Assistant Public Prosecutor Rajashri Virkud.

She told the court that the accused met repeatedly in different places to hatch the murder plot and the police want to investigate it in detail.

“The accused has deleted digital data which constitutes a crucial piece of evidence, the process of recovering this data is currently underway. Once obtained, this data will serve as a basis for a thorough interrogation of the accused,” he told the court.

A reconstruction of the sequence of events based on Goyal’s statement was made on 28 June. The sequence of events must now be verified with Chaudhary, the prosecution said.

“During the incident, both the accused were interacting with certain persons at Lohagad Fort. Based on the CCTV footage obtained, a thorough criminal investigation is required to be conducted against the accused in the context of these interactions,” the prosecution added.

The prosecution told the judge that Goyal did not want to travel to Bali with Agarwal for a pre-wedding photo shoot. During their journey from Pune to Mumbai, she allegedly took out his passport from her bag and dropped it somewhere at the Khalapur mall in Raigad district.

“Therefore, the passport of the deceased with the help of Goyal needs to be found and recovered,” the prosecution said.

She further stated that in the course of the investigation, some important witnesses have come forward recently, who will be confronted with the accused and their statements will be verified.

Advocate Vipul Dushing, the lawyer representing Goyal, argued before the court that her arrest was illegal and without any valid reason.

Chaudhary’s lawyer Ram Shahane said his client’s role in the FIR is very limited and undefined.

On Monday, the court extended the pair’s custody until July 3.

Murder of Ketan Agarwal

Siya Goyal and Chetan Chaudhary were arrested for allegedly conspiring to kill Ketan Agarwal and push him off a cliff at Lohagad Fort in Pune district on June 18.

Siya Goyal got engaged to Ketan Agarwal in February and they were set to marry in November. According to the police, she was in a relationship with her co-accused and did not want to marry the victim.

The pair then planned to dispose of the victim by pushing him off Lohagad Fort to make it look like an accident.

Key things

• Gait analysis serves as a sophisticated forensic tool in criminal investigations.
• The investigation sheds light on the complexity of personal relationships influencing criminal behavior.
• The presence of missing evidence can significantly change the course of a murder investigation.