Siya Goyal's 'lawyer' sues her brother for Rs 10 crore over defamation

Advocate Aashutosh Srivastava has sent a Rs 10 crore defamation notice to Sahil Goyal, accusing the brother of murder accused Siya Goyal of making false statements. Srivastava's notice was in response to Sahil Goyal saying that the lawyer had used deception to get Siya to sign legal documents.

In Short

• Court extended Siya Goyal and Chetan Chaudhary's police custody till July 3
• Siya told court Vipul Dushing represented her, not Aashutosh Srivastava
• Sahil Goyal alleged Srivastava lacked authorisation and obtained signatures by deceit

In a fresh twist in the murder case of Pune-based realtor Ketan Agarwal, advocate Aashutosh Srivastava has sent a defamation notice to Sahil Goyal, the brother of prime accused Siya Goyal, accusing him of making false and defamatory allegations that damaged his professional reputation. Srivastava has demanded Rs 10 crore in damages from Sahil.

The advocate's move was in response to Sahil Goyal's interview to India Today TV during which he denied that the Goyal family had employed the services of Aashutosh Srivastava. Sahil also insinuated that Aashutosh Srivastava may have used deception to get Siya Goyal to sign certain legal papers.

These are the allegations over which Aashutosh Srivastava has sent a legal notice, accusing Sahil of defamation and making false claims. The notice demands Rs 10 crore in damages and compensation. Srivastava claims that his team had met Siya Goyal on their own accord and had received her approval to represent her.

The dispute also played out in court on Monday when Srivastava appeared before the Vadgaon Maval court claiming to represent Siya and submitted a vakalatnama purportedly bearing her signature. However, Siya told the court that advocate Vipul Dushing, not Srivastava, was her lawyer, a position reiterated by her family, which maintained that Dushing had been officially appointed to represent her.

Ahead of the hearing, Sahil Goyal had publicly alleged that Srivastava was neither authorised nor appointed by the family to represent Siya. He claimed the family had appointed advocate Vipul Dushing to represent her and had filed an affidavit before the court to that effect. Sahil further alleged that Srivastava may have obtained Siya's signature "by deceit" and accused him of issuing threats to the family.

According to the legal notice, Srivastava described Sahil's statements as "false, baseless, defamatory and misleading", alleging that they had caused serious harm to his professional reputation. The notice demands that Sahil withdraw the allegations, issue a public apology and provide a written assurance that he will not repeat such statements in the future.

Responding to the controversy, Srivastava maintained that his legal team had approached Siya directly and that she had voluntarily authorised them to represent her.

"Our team met Siya Goyal. She required legal assistance, so she signed the vakalatnama in our favour. Siya Goyal is an adult and is fully capable of making her own decisions. Sahil Goyal's statement is incorrect because we never spoke to him; we dealt directly with Siya. She spoke to us and executed a vakalatnama in our favour, valid up to the Bombay High Court. The document bears her signatures," Srivastava said.

The allegations contained in the legal notice are Srivastava's claims. Sahil Goyal has not yet publicly responded to the notice.

Meanwhile, police have continued to press for custodial interrogation of Siya and Chaudhary, telling the court that the investigation has revealed the duo had earlier visited Lohagad Fort to identify the spot from where Agarwal was allegedly pushed to his death.

The prosecution also said investigators are working to recover deleted digital evidence, verify the reconstructed sequence of events with Chaudhary, identify people who interacted with the accused at the fort based on CCTV footage, recover Agarwal's missing passport allegedly discarded by Siya during a trip, and confront the accused with newly identified witnesses.

Police allege that 20-year-old Siya conspired with her 22-year-old boyfriend, Chaudhary, to kill Agarwal because she did not want to marry him and believed calling off the wedding would bring disrepute to her family. Both have been arrested on charges of conspiring to murder the realtor by pushing him off a cliff at Lohagad Fort in Pune district.

- Ends