3 min readPuneJul 1, 2026 10:38 AM IST
A day after the family of Siya Goyal, a co-accused in the Ketan Agarwal murder, denied appointing him as her defence counsel, advocate Aashuutosh Srivastava on Tuesday issued a defamation notice to her brother Sahil Goyal, seeking Rs 10 crore in damages over his remarks to the media.
The notice comes after Sahil spoke to reporters ahead of Monday’s hearing at the Vadgaon Maval court, where he denied that the Goyals had engaged Srivastava’s services. “We have never engaged him, and he is not someone appointed by us. Whatever he is claiming, I have no knowledge of it,” Sahil told the media. Siya also informed the court that advocate Vipul Dushing was her chosen counsel.
Srivastava, who claims to represent Siya in the case, has now accused Sahil of making false and defamatory statements that damaged his professional standing as a practising advocate. In his legal notice, he asserted that he had built his reputation appearing in criminal and civil matters before various courts and authorities over the years, and that any public statement falsely implying he lacked authorisation to represent an accused person was inherently “defamatory and caused direct professional injury”.
Srivastava further stated in the notice that Siya had personally executed and signed a vakalatnama in his favour, authorising him to handle her legal defence. He maintained that this was not an oral claim or a media-driven assertion but a formal legal authorisation voluntarily granted by an adult accused.
In the notice, Srivastava expressed objection to Sahil’s conduct, stating that he found it “appalling, distressing and shocking” that Sahil made the public statement without first verifying the authenticity of the vakalatnama already on court record, and without reaching out to him or his office for clarification. He alleged that the statement was issued “blatantly, irresponsibly, maliciously and fraudulently”, suggesting he had not been appointed or authorised by the family.
‘Damaged professional goodwill’
The notice claims that Sahil’s statement to the media has resulted in both quantified and unquantified losses for Srivastava, including damage to his professional goodwill, mental trauma, reputational injury, erosion of confidence among existing and prospective clients, and heightened personal risk arising from the hostile atmosphere created by the media coverage.
Citing the scale and nature of the publication, Srivastava’s notice pegs the bare minimum damages at Rs 10 crore, without prejudice to enhancement upon further discovery of circulation, republication, comments, views, shares and consequential loss.
Story continues below this ad
Ketan Agarwal was allegedly pushed off a cliff at Lohagad Fort by Siya, his fiancée, and her lover, Chetan Chaudhary. Siya and Chetan were arrested on June 23 after the Pune rural police pieced together what they described as a meticulously planned conspiracy.