’Who killed my son?’

Parents of 27-year-old Sourabh allege that cops are covering up for management of Blue Waves Lounge Bar at Church Street, from where their son fell to his death. Even 10 days after he died, cops have not handed them the post-mortem report and continue to claim death is accidental

'Who killed my son?'

Apart from several other questions plaguing the grieving Behra household after their eldest son died after falling from the fifth floor terrace of the Blue Waves Lounge Bar in the up-town Church Street area, doubts continue to linger in their minds.

Suresh K Behra, the victim's father is finding it difficult to believe the police version that their son died in an accidental fall. He has alleged that the cops are trying to covering-up the case.

After visiting the hotel, from where the 27-year-old fell to his death, and urging the cops to investigate, the family refuses to sit peacefully till they find out who killed their son.

The Behras' frustration has further been fuelled as the Cubbon Park police seem to be in no mood to cooperate and despite 10 days passing since their son's death, the cops have not not be been able to given them a post-mortem report.
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The incident has been treated as an open-and-shut case, though, the family says, several loose ends need to be tied.

Abrupt end
Two days before Sourabh fell to his death from the terrace of the Sheraton Grand (which houses Blue Waves on the fifth floor), he had joked on a popular social website about having a WiFi equipped tombstone.

At 9 pm on October 28, Sourabh left his home at Kumaraswamy Layout for dinner and reached Blue Waves Lounge Bar, which was offering unlimited drinks for Rs 1,000. Witnesses say that he was in good spirits all evening and even praised the chef's culinary skills and tipped the waiters generously, before leaving.

Twenty minutes later, people realised something had happened after a loud thud was heard when Sourabh plunged from the fifth-storey terrace and landed on the single-storey building adjacent the Sheraton Grand. He was rushed to the Victoria Hospital, where he was declared dead.

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Family and friends of Sourabh Behra (left) feel that the police
are covering up something and that the victim could not have
committed suicide. His father Suresh K Behra (right) feels that
his son was murdered and the police should investigate the case further.

The incident has left several questions unanswered and shows the apathy of the hotel authorities as they are unable to justify why the door leading to the terrace was left open.
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The police only called his roommate Vijay Kumar Mishra at 4.45 am the next day to inform him of the incident, which has further fuelled the growing doubts.

No reason to die
"We want to know who killed our son. This is certainly not a suicide or accident. We know our son and we deserve to know what happened that night. When I visited the hotel, the management refused to tell me anything that happened that night.

It is understandable that they don't want to tell me, but the cops have the authority to question them. Instead, when I urged the cops to find out what went wrong, they snapped at me and mistreated me.
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From the start, the cops have been treating this as a suicide case when there is glaring evidence that it is not. Our son had no reason to commit suicide, as he was well settled, strong and a dedicated software professional. This is a conspiracy and a murder case. But the cops are refusing to listen to our side," said Suresh.

Vanishing act?
Meanwhile, the staff from the Sheraton Grand revealed to this reporter that the manager and other staff from Blue Waves have not been coming to the hotel since the incident.

"There is absolutely no crowd at the bar and the staff are not here," said the front desk receptionist, when approached. However, the manager of the establishment claimed that they were not involved.
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"We heard a loud sound, but don't know how a customer got up there since it is a no-access zone. His father came here to check and he couldn't get up there either. The customer visited the bar alone and left alone. We have helped the police in all ways possible," said Anand, manager, Blue Waves Lounge Bar.

Foul play?
Family and friends of the victim smell a rat as the cops have refused to file a complaint against the establishment for negligence.

"We wanted to file a case of negligence against the hotel for leaving the door to terrace open. Furthermore, out of 16 CCTV cameras installed at the hotel, only 3 were functional. Why haven't the cops done anything about this?" Suresh said.

Sourabh's friends are also pondering over why the police took over four hours to inform anyone of his death.
"We got the first call in the wee hours of the next day. When we rushed to the police station, they refused to divulge details about his death. They didn't even answer certain crucial questions we posed about the incident," said V Mehta, Sourabh's friend.

Meanwhile, the Cubbon Park cops have written off this case as an accident and did not comment when questioned about not wanting to file a case of negligence against the bar.