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Karl Slym, the British managing director (MD) of Tata Motors, could have jumped to his death from a 22nd floor hotel window in Bangkok, the Thai police said. Slym’s body was discovered on the fourth floor of the towering Shangri-La hotel in the city’s upmarket Yannawa district on Sunday morning.
Police believe Slym's death could have been a suicide as, they claim, it would have been impossible to accidentally fall from the small hotel window. They also discovered a three-page handwritten note in English in his hotel room. They are in the process of translating it into Thai.
Police Lieutenant Somyot Boonnakaew, who is heading the investigation, told Bloomberg: “Slym’s room had no balcony and had a wide window, which can’t be opened, that had views of the Chao Phraya river, and a small window next to it, which could be opened to let in fresh air. Slym might have fallen from the smaller window. It would be difficult to force him out of such a small window,” Somyot said.
The police chief told Reuters he did not find any sign of a struggle and from his initial investigations, he believed Slym had jumped.
The Thai police said they were called to the Shangri-La hotel around 7.45 am on Sunday, after the staff found Slym’s body. They woke up Slym’s wife, who looked shocked when she was told what had happened to her husband.
Studying all the evidence would probably take about two weeks, Somyot said. Pornchai Suteerakune, commander at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, told reporters Slym died from his fall and an autopsy on his body was done on Monday.
According to sources, Tata Motors might appoint Ravi Kant, former managing director and current vice-chairman, as interim MD. Shares of Tata Motors closed six per cent lower at Rs 347.80 on the BSE exchange as the Sensex fell two per cent on Monday.
For India’s biggest automaker by revenue, Slym’s death creates a leadership vacuum when the country’s passenger-vehicle industry is bracing for its first financial year of declines in more than a decade.
Slym, who joined Tata Motors in 2012 after a 17-year career at General Motors (GM), was in charge of the company’s India business and sought to spur demand for the sub-Rs 2-lakh Nano, once marketed as the world’s cheapest car, by repositioning it as a second vehicle.
Though Tata Motors did not provide any information, sources said a team had already left for Bangkok.
People who have worked with Slym say he handled pressure quite well. Slym was the head of the India outfit of GM when it was going through its toughest phase. Customers ditched the Chevrolet brand after the mother company in the US filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in mid-2009.
Though Slym was tackling day-to-day issues relating to branding, positioning, sales and purchasing at Tata Motors, his name also cropped up on the list of the names who would be questioned for GM’s Tavera emission data fraud.
A government-instituted panel, which probed the extent of non-compliance on part of GM in re-fitting pre-approved engines on Tavera models sent for inspection to meet emission norms, in its report in October last year held the company responsible for corporate fraud.
The report said top company executives, including chief executive officers and managing directors between 2005 and 2012, were involved in the violations. Slym headed the company for four years till 2011.
