Karan Joseph suicide: Neighbour claims to have seen musician dangling from flat four days before death

The probe into the alleged suicide of 29-year-old musician Karan Joseph has turned murkier, with a neighbour telling the police that she saw a “bald and thin boy” perched precariously from the ledge of the flat from where Joseph allegedly jumped to his death four days later. Joseph had allegedly killed himself by jumping off the 12th floor of a highrise in Mumbai’s Bandra suburb on 9 September. The woman was said to live in the flat directly below this apartment.

The woman, The Times of India reported, also claimed in her statement to the police that the bald boy seemed to be dangling with a “curly plastic wire” tied to his trousers, with someone holding the cord from the other end. She also said she had heard lot of noise coming from the apartment before witnessing the scene.

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When the woman went upstairs with her husband, she met one Vidhi Shah, a friend and business partner of the flat occupant Rishi Shah, who told the couple that an incident had occurred there but things were under control, she told the police.

But later, when she was asked to identify the person whom she had seen on 5 September, she said he was “bald” and was certainly not Rishi, which means he was likely to be Joseph himself.

Joseph, a Berklee College of Music alumnus, was known as ‘Madfingers’ on the music circuit. He had reportedly leapt to his death from the 12th floor apartment of a friend in Bandra, at around 8.45 am on 9 September.

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Mumbai Mirror reported that the police is probing a possible abettment angle in this incident. As per the report, the musician had sent several text messages to his mother who lives in Bengaluru, telling her that he “feared for his life” and “had been beaten up by somebody”.

An accidental death report was filed by the Mumbai police. The report quoted senior police inspector Pandit Thackeray of the Bandra Police station as saying the post-mortem report indicated no assault marks on Karan’s body, apart from the multiple fractures he sustained in the fall.

Meanwhile, Joseph’s friends have alleged in a letter given to police that the musician was facing mental, emotional and physical abuse during his stay with Rishi Shah, reported Mid-Day.

In the letter, Joseph’s friends alleged that Rishi, who is the CEO of Crossbones Media, promised big contracts to musicians, and later emotionally, verbally and sometimes even physically abused them, Mumbai Mirror wrote. “Rishi is nefarious to work with and mentally unbalanced. He is prone to bursts of anger, aggression and ego-centric behaviour,” reported Mumbai Mirror quoting a friend of Karan’s, who was part of the group that approached the police.

On Tuesday, Rishi was called twice by the police to record his statements, Mid Day reported, adding that Rishi repeated the statement he had given on the day of Joseph’s death.

In his statement to police, Rishi had said that Joseph had come to his home in the morning of 9 September. Rishi further told the police that Joseph was on his way from his friend Tej Brar’s house, where a group of other friends were also present. In his statement to the police, Rishi recounted Joseph telling him that all his friends were upset with him.

Rishi said that he asked Joseph to not take things seriously, but he “went and sat by the window with one leg hanging outside. And before I could think or even do anything, he jumped”, Rishi added.