US executive concocted attack story to leave country: Mumbai Cops

Two days after a US executive complained that he had been attacked while on a morning walk in Powai, the police say the evidence suggests that he concocted the story to get away from the country.

David Parish, 51, came to Mumbai on Monday after he was deputed here by Larsen & Toubro. On Tuesday, he told the Powai police that he was attacked by three bike-borne robbers who also demanded money. According to Parish, the incident happened near the National Institute of Industrial Engineering around 6.30am. He said he resisted them and even punched two of them before they fled. On Thursday, the police said they had recovered a blood-stained butter knife, a fork and tissue papers from Parish’s room at Ramada hotel, where he was staying. So, it seems that he inflicted injuries on his back.

A police officer said, “Parish came to India on official work, allegedly against his wishes. So, it seems that he might have cooked up the incident.”

Parish is said to have left the country on Wednesday without informing the police.

He said that a scrutiny of the CCTV footage showed that Parish had not left the hotel around the time he said that the attack took place and that he was in his room.

“After the investigation is completed we will file a report to the court that the case seems to be false,” said another police officer.  The cops had even made sketches of suspects going by the description given by Parish.

“We rounded up several persons whom we suspected, but we found that they were not in the area at the time of incident,” said Yadavrao Jadhav, senior police inspector.