In a bizarre incident, a 23-year-old post-graduation student ended his life by jumping from the 19th floor of a posh five-star in Bandra West on Monday,allegedly under the influence of alcohol.
The Bandra police found a suicide note in which Bharadwaj said he was ending his life due to depression. Bharadwaj has thanked his parents and friends. He has also apologised to his parents for taking the drastic step.In the note, Bharadwaj held no one responsible for his act.
Before ending his life, Arjun Bharadwaj had streamed the 1-minute, 44-second tutorial “How to Suicide” on Facebook from Bandra’s Taj Lands End Hotel.He lists the five steps – write notes to people, get drunk, eat, check out the view and die.
According to the Bandra police, the man, Arjun Bharadwaj, a resident of Bangalore, jumped around 6.30pm. He was a student in Mumbai’s Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies. Bharadwaj had been living in the city since 2013, the police said.
Before jumping from the hotel room window, Bhardwaj in the video gives steps to end one’s life by first writing notes to people, then getting drunk,he is seen smoking and consuming alcohol,enjoying the view from the hotel room and eating bacon pasta. Later, he ends the video claiming that he will not be recording when he jumps, and bids goodbye to friends.
Bandra police claims that Bharadwaj used a chair to smash the window of the room to jump. The noise alerted the security, who took an hour to reach the terrace on the 11th floor as there was no way to access it. Bharadwaj was later rushed to Bhabha hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.
A source said the police believe that the act was premeditated “since he walked into the hotel, broadcast a video on Facebook and posted a photograph with the caption ‘View to die for’.”
Pandit Thackeray, senior inspector of Bandra police station, said Bhardwaj’s parents have been informed and investigations are underway. “We have registered an accidental death report.”
According to police, Bharadwaj appeared to be someone interested in macabre as his browsing history had a lot of searches pertaining to death.There were lots of sites that he visited that had to do with dying and “celebrating death”…he had evidently come prepared. The notes were addressed to several people, including family members, but were mostly about how death was a celebration,a police official.
Police said that Bharadwaj’s father had come to Mumbai from Bangalore after speaking to him a week ago. His father said that he had sounded disturbed and he had come down to Mumbai out of concern. He had been staying with a relative in Chembur for the last three days.
Police also issued an advisory to the media to not run the video on their portals due to the sensitive and impressionable content, which could impact the youth negatively.
Joint commissioner of police, law and order, Deven Bharti, confirmed the Mumbai police have contacted Facebook and blocked the video so it does not go viral.
The Mumbai police later tweeted about the incident saying, “Deeply bereaved with suicide of a young boy in the city. We urge the youngsters to reach out to us #WeAreListening. Contact us on 100.”
