Karan Joseph allegedly jumped to his death from a 12th floor apartment in Bandra.
Musician Karan Joseph's parents have demanded that a murder case be filed after the pianist allegedly
jumped to his death from the 12th floor apartment of Rishi Shah in Bandra's Bollock Road area over a week ago. "I gave a written complaint citing the murder of my son by an unknown person and that an inquiry should to be conducted. Despite my clear written complaint of murder against an unknown person, the investigating officer didn't register a case under Section 302 IPC," Dr Thomas Joseph said in a statement released at the Bangalore Press Club on Monday.
"Rishi Shah desperately wanted Karan to join him and sign an exclusive business contract with him for RAVE magazine and alienate him from his regular band guys and other artistes. At this time, Karan was still playing with his musician friends in Mumbai. Rishi Shah contacted the family and requested us to come to Mumbai to discuss the contract. This is the only reason why my wife and I went to Mumbai. On meeting us in August '17, he made tall promises and we blindly believed him, assuming he had Karan's best interests at heart," the statement said referring to the meeting that the Josephs had with Rishi Shah at his apartment earlier.
"The shock waves of his passing travelled through the music industry and his friends immediately made public the messages Karan had sent via WhatsApp, including the ones sent to his friend Randolph which clearly shows that all was not well on the 8th night/9th morning of September and that he feared for his life. These
phone messages were among the last communication that Karan sent out and indicate that there were some person/persons who were intimidating him to a point that ultimately resulted in his death. Those messages should be given the status of a dying declaration," Dr Joseph said in the statement.
"It is important to note that Karan was clearly being enticed and coerced by Rishi Shah to sign a music contract disassociating him from the rest of the music Industry. This was the subject matter of intense discussion across the Mumbai music world and would have some bearing on people's actions in the run up to whatever may have happened on that fateful night leading to his death," the statement added.
In the statement, Karan's father has also demanded a forensic analysis of Rishi Shah's phones, laptop and his aide Vidhi Shah's phone.
While responding to allegations that
he was to blame for Karan's death, Rishi Shah in an interview with NDTV had said, "It's not true. Just because I might be stubborn or maybe little arrogant and I like to do things my way, it doesn't make me a murderer. All I can say is that it's not true and I didn't do this to him. He was a strong man and for those who say he was shy, I don't think you can be that great a musician if you are shy. You're not gonna believe it if I say it, but you can ask his mom and his mom will tell you that I didn't do it and that matters. She stayed with me, she stayed with us."