Pune: In the Ketan Agarwal murder case, in which Ketan was allegedly pushed into a gorge at Lohagad Fort near Lonavala and murdered, accused Siya Goyal and Chetan Chaudhary have been arrested and are currently in 14-day judicial custody. As the investigation continues, Chetan Chaudhary's lawyer, Advocate Radhikesh Uttarwar, has claimed that his client's arrest was illegal and has raised several serious questions about the manner in which it was carried out.
Speaking to ANI, Advocate Uttarwar said that two key applications had been filed before the court on Saturday.
First Application
"In the present case, we had filed an application yesterday seeking a declaration that Chetan's arrest was illegal. We have filed this application on two grounds. The first is that during the initial period of police custody (remand), we were not allowed to meet Chetan or obtain instructions from him. However, after meeting him on June 30, we gathered information from him," Advocate Uttarwar said.
He further alleged that, contrary to the police remand report stating that Chetan was arrested at 4.30 pm on June 23, he was actually taken into custody much earlier.
"We came to know that, contrary to what was stated in the police remand report, Chetan was not arrested at 4.30 pm on June 23. In reality, a plainclothes police officer took him into custody from his residence at around 12.15 am and brought him to the Pune Rural Superintendent of Police's office. The police have shown a delay of nearly 12 hours before registering the FIR around 12.30 pm. We contend that this period of detention was illegal. Therefore, we have filed an application seeking a declaration that Chetan's entire arrest and subsequent custody are illegal and have requested appropriate relief from the court," he said.
Second Application
Advocate Uttarwar said a second application had also been filed seeking directions to preserve and produce the CCTV footage from the Pune Rural Superintendent of Police's office.
"We have requested the court to direct that the CCTV footage from the superintendent of police's office be preserved and produced before the court. The matter has now been posted for further hearing on Wednesday," he said.
