Police record statements of two persons musician spoke to before killing himself

Karan Joseph jumped to death from the 12th floor of a Bandra building on September 9. (Express Photo)

THE BANDRA police Friday recorded the statements of two friends of pianist Karan Joseph, whom he had spoken to minutes before jumping to death. The statements were recorded via WhatsApp since one of the friends, Avisa Keskar, is in the US and the other, Emmanuel, is in Sri Lanka. As per phone records, Joseph spoke to the two for less than a minute each, after six other calls made by him went unanswered.

The statements, have, however not helped shed any light on the reason that drove Joseph to suicide. The pianist jumped from the 12th floor of a building in Bandra on September 9.

An officer from the Bandra police, where a case of abetment to suicide has been registered against unknown persons, said: “Since the two are based out of India, we recorded their statements via WhatsApp. Since they were the people Joseph spoke to minutes before his suicide, we were hoping they would know about something that was bothering him. However, both Avisa and Emmanuel said they had a normal conversation with him and did not find anything amiss.”

In a comment on a blogpost regarding Joseph’s demise, Avisa Keskar on September 10 stated, “I spoke to Karan 30 mins before this happened, he called me once and I cut the call as I was busy since it was my evening as I’m in Portland USA atm, I messaged him saying I will call him back but by then my phone was buzzing again so I answered it and spoke with him; asking him how he his and he kept laughing so I asked him if he was tripping but he replied saying no. (sic)”

The post then goes onto add: “However at the end of our conversation he asked me if I knew his friend Rishi and I said no after which he mentioned that everyone was tripping on him to which I replied saying not to worry and that it’s in his head since I assumed he was intoxicated, in all that laughter he hung up as we said our good byes casually and messaged right after apologising for his friends behaviour and that he misses me. I replied back saying no worries only to find out a few hours later that he was gone. I don’t know if this would be helpful information but it’s all I have left of him are those messages. May he keep smiling as I remember it, when I think of him it’s all I see is that smile. (sic)”

An officer said that so far, they had recorded 13 statements, including those of Joseph’s parents. They have not made allegations against anyone. “We are now waiting for a report from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) on the blood samples of Joseph and on the four mobile phones that we sent them. They should also be able to retrieve deleted messages. In the statements that we have registered so far, there is no evidence against anyone in the case,” the officer said.

The police have found that Joseph was caught between friends, whom he had known for years, and Rishi Shah, at whose Bandra residence he was living since the past month. Shah had asked Karan to stop performing with his friends, who he believed were not that talented, while Joseph’s friends had a poor opinion of Shah and had asked him to be careful while dealing with him.