Ketan Agarwal Murder Case: Advocate Aashutosh Srivastava Sends ₹10 Crore Defamation Notice To Sahil Goyal Over Alleged False Claims
Ketan Agarwal Murder Case: Advocate Aashutosh Srivastava Sends ₹10 Crore Defamation Notice To Sahil Goyal Over Alleged False Claims
Pune, June 30, 2026: The investigation into the alleged murder of Pune-based realtor Ketan Agarwal has taken a fresh legal turn after advocate Aashutosh Srivastava issued a ₹10 crore defamation notice to Sahil Goyal, the brother of prime accused Siya Goyal. The notice accuses Sahil of making false and defamatory statements that allegedly harmed the advocate’s professional reputation.
The development follows a dispute over Siya Goyal’s legal representation during court proceedings. On Monday, Siya Goyal and her co-accused and alleged boyfriend, Chetan Chaudhary, were produced before the Vadgaon Maval Court after the expiry of their initial police custody. The court extended their police custody until July 3 to allow investigators to continue the probe.
During the hearing, advocate Aashutosh Srivastava appeared before the court claiming to represent Siya Goyal and submitted a vakalatnama allegedly bearing her signature. However, Siya informed the court that advocate Vipul Dushing was representing her. Her family also maintained that Dushing had been officially appointed as her legal counsel.
Ahead of the hearing, Sahil Goyal publicly alleged that Srivastava had neither been authorised by Siya nor appointed by the family to represent her. He further claimed that the family had filed an affidavit before the court clarifying the issue and alleged that Srivastava may have obtained Siya’s signature through deception. Sahil also accused the advocate of threatening the family.
In response, Srivastava served a legal notice seeking ₹10 crore in damages. The notice alleges that Sahil made “false, baseless, defamatory and misleading” statements, causing serious damage to the advocate’s professional standing. It demands that Sahil immediately withdraw the allegations, issue a public apology, and provide a written undertaking that he will not repeat such statements in the future.
Responding to the controversy, Srivastava stated that his legal team had approached Siya directly and that she had voluntarily signed the vakalatnama authorising them to represent her. He maintained that Siya, being an adult, was fully competent to appoint her own legal counsel and asserted that the vakalatnama remains valid up to the Bombay High Court. Sahil Goyal has not yet publicly responded to the defamation notice.
Meanwhile, police told the court that custodial interrogation of Siya Goyal and Chetan Chaudhary remains crucial. Investigators are attempting to recover deleted digital evidence, verify the reconstructed sequence of events at Lohagad Fort, identify witnesses through CCTV footage, recover Ketan Agarwal’s missing passport allegedly discarded during a trip, and confront the accused with newly identified witnesses.
According to police, the investigation indicates that Siya Goyal allegedly conspired with Chetan Chaudhary to murder Ketan Agarwal by pushing him off a cliff at Lohagad Fort, allegedly because she did not wish to marry him and feared that calling off the wedding would bring disrepute to her family. The investigation is ongoing.
