Prateek Tanmay
3 min readPuneJul 3, 2026 10:32 PM IST
While producing Siya and Chetan — the duo accused in the alleged murder of 25-year-old Ketan Agarwal — before the Vadgaon Maval court on Friday, the Pune Rural Police told judicial magistrate (first class) A M Vibhute that data retrieved from two cell phones seized from the accused showed the two had allegedly used “nicknames” and “code names” in their communication.
During investigation, police had seized Siya and Chetan’s mobile phones. Police suspected they had deleted the chats between them before and after committing Ketan’s murder by pushing him from the Western cliff of the Lohagad Fort in Pune district on June 18. The two cell phones were then sent to the forensic lab to retrieve their chats on messenger Apps.
After producing Siya and Chetan before the Vadgaon Maval court on Friday, the police told judicial magistrate (first class) A M Vibhute that data retrieved from the two cell phones revealed Siya and Chetan had allegedly used “nicknames” and “code names” in their communication.
Police sought three more days custody of the accused to investigate these “nick names” and “code names”.
Police also said they seized one more cell phone that Siya had been using personally. Police told the court that further custody of the accused was required to interrogate them about this communication via this cell phone and its data.
Assistant public prosecutor Rajashri Virkud said that a custody extension of the accused was required to determine under what context the “nick names” and “Smileys (Emojis)” shared were used during their interaction with each other.
Defence lawyers argued that accused persons have been in police custody for the last 12 days. “Police have seized the cell phones. There are no sufficient grounds for extending the custody of the accused,” said Siya’s counsel Vipul Dushing.
Story continues below this ad
After hearing both sides, the court refused to extend the custody of the two accused persons and granted them magisterial custody remand.
Speaking to media persons, Sandeep Singh Gill, Superintendent of Pune Rural Police said, “It is seen many times that there is use of informal language, where nicknames are used for addressing. Besides, phrases are observed that are without any context. This is what we mean by coded communication. We probe it because it is important to connect the dots in an investigation.”
Panchanama of alleged rehearsal spot
Prosecution told the court on Friday that police conducted a panchnama of the location where the accused persons alleged conducted a rehearsal of the murder.
Police did not press for polygraph test
The police on Friday submitted an application in court that it did not press for permission for polygraph tests of the accused.
Story continues below this ad
When contacted, Siya’s lawyer Vipul Dushing said the accused had given consent for a polygraph test. However, the police told the court they do not want to proceed with the application for the polygraph test.
A polygraph, commonly known as a lie detector test, measures physiological responses such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration and skin conductivity while a person answers a series of questions.
