Karan Joseph death: 'Rishi coercing Karan to sign contract was the root cause'

Karan Joseph was not depressed or in financial distress, said his parents, who have now blamed the pianist's death on his flatmate and entrepreneur Rishi Shah, who was allegedly coercing Karan to sign a contract with him

Karan Joseph

Karan Joseph was not depressed or in financial distress, said his parents, who have now blamed the pianist's death on his flatmate and entrepreneur Rishi Shah, who was allegedly coercing Karan to sign a contract with him.

Karan's parents pointed out lapses in the investigation, further said that they suspected some interference in the probe, as on two separate occasions, they had spotted a retired ACP at Bandra police station at the same time as Rishi. Sources said the ACP had retired from the force about seven years ago and is presently working with a real estate firm.

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Karan's parents said in their statement, "The retired police officer was seated with Suzana Uusmaa (Rishi's friend), Rishi's secretary Vidhi Shah."

They said about Karan, "Rumours of him being in financial difficulty are just plain rubbish… To our utter shock and dismay, false reports were published that Karan had committed suicide due to depression."

"Rishi promised to make Karan a brand and dissuaded him from playing with any other artists… Rishi enticed Karan with the offer to buy him, in his words, 'One of the world's most expensive keyboards, The Prophet'. At a later day, Vidhi, stated that if Karan did not sign the contract, he could repay the cost of the keyboard over a period of five years."

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"Karan not signing the contract would mean a great loss for Rave… This is the root cause of the incident."

A police officer said, "We are investigating from all angles." Despite attempts to contact Rishi Shah, he was not available for comment.

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