In a jolt to the Indian music community, Mumbai-based pianist and keyboardist 29-year-old Karan Joseph, allegedly jumped to his death on the morning of 9 September.
According to report, Joseph, popularly known as 'Madfingers' for his musical abilities and finger-dexterity, allegedly jumped from the 12th floor of his Bandra apartment.
A graduate from the prestigious Berklee College of Music, the Bengaluru-born musician was living with his friends in Bandra’s Concord Apartments for the past one month, reported The Indian Express.
The motive behind Joseph’s alleged suicide is yet to be ascertained, a police officer at the Bandra police station told The Indian Express. No suicide note has been found.
The police told The Indian Express that at 8:45 am on 9 September, the young musician was sitting with his flatmates in the living room of his apartment and watching the news on TV. The officer told the newspaper:
The deceased was staring out of the window. Suddenly, he got up and jumped out of it. There was no grill outside the window.
Police claimed that Joseph was immediately rushed to the hospital, where he was declared dead upon arrival. Joseph’s family, who live in Bengaluru, reached Mumbai later that evening. The police will hand over the deceased’s body to his parents and brother after the post-mortem. A case of accidental death has been registered at the Bandra police station, reported The Indian Express.
The police have been speaking to Joseph’s friends, flatmates and family to gauge the reasons that might have motivated him to take his own life, if at all that is the case.
Joseph is remembered as a versatile musician, who could dabble in genres as diverse as jazz, funk, rock and blues, with equal élan.
Musicians Pay Last Respects to “Madfingers’
This is what musicians from across the country had to say about Karan Joseph:
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