<![CDATA[MUMBAI: The Mumbai Crime Branch on Wednesday took over the probe into pianist Karan Joseph's death, a day after his uncle and three other family members met the Police Commissioner and expressed displeasure with Bandra Police's investigation. On September 9, Karan (29) allegedly ended his life by leaping off the 12th floor flat of Rishi Shah (47), CEO of Crossbones media, at Concorde Apartments in Bandra (W). Karan was living with Shah since last year. Bandra senior Police Inspector Pandit Thakare confirmed that the case has been transferred to the Crime Branch Unit V in Kurla. Crime Branch sleuths will probe two angles—abetment of suicide and murder. Karan's family members had raised several objections to Bandra Police's probe including the dismissal of the statement of the woman living on the 11th floor who had seen Karan dangling precariously from the ledge of Shah's 12th floor flat four days prior to his fall, said a Police officer. M Zaki, a residentof Concorde Apartments, told the 11th floor resident has rubbished police claims that Karan was trying to retrieve cash from the ledge. While the woman was unavailable Zaki said, "That afternoon, there was a lot of howling, crying and banging on furniture for 15 minutes in the 12th floor flat. Now that the case has been transferred to the Crime Branch, we hope this incident will be investigated properly." Karan's father, during a media interaction in Bengaluru on Monday, had pointed out several loopholes in Bandra police's probe. "His father demanded that Indian Penal Code Section 302 (murder) be slapped against unidentified persons instead of Section 306 (abetment of suicide)," said the officer. Karan's parents had also alleged that Shah had been pressuring their son to sign a contract with him, but Karan wanted time to consider the proposal.]]>
