Notorious Hotel Rooms: The Case of The Sealed Suite

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Les Clefs d’Or [‘lay clay door’, meaning ‘keys of gold’] is an International Network of Concierges expected to make ‘impossible requests of a guest possible, no matter how strange’. They have ‘sources of inside information, intelligence and communication’. Oberoi, Mumbai in 1986 was first to have a Member of Les Clefs d’Or.

Sunny Prasher, Member of Les Clefs d’Or India, was Chief Concierge at Leela Palace, New Delhi on 17th January, 2014. It is widely alleged, a murdered Sunanda Pushkar’s body was moved from Room No. 307 to Room No. 345. Concierge’s role cannot be understated? #345 has been shut, since January 2014. Over 3 years later, any possible evidence of foul play or forensic clues would have long gone. No one from Delhi Police has checked in, or checked out, for past 15 months. #345 must be, by now, covered in dust and cobwebs since housekeeping has been barred.

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#345 Door, Missing.

Leela Palace recently claimed, there are 17 Suites and cost of these range from Rs. 55,000/- to Rs. 61,000/- per night; Hotel’s inability to offer Suite No. 345 in last 3 years has caused a loss of approximately Rs. 50 Lakh.

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The Room Number Duality also existed while filming The Shining [1980, dir. Stanley Kubrick]. Timberline Lodge, located on Mt. Hood in Oregon, was used for exterior shots of Overlook Hotel. Kubrick was requested not to depict Room No. 217. A non-existent Room No. 237 was substituted.

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There is a long list of notorious Hotel Rooms. In Room No. 100, Hotel Chelsea, New York – Sid Vicious, Prince of Punk awoke finding his girlfriend dead from a stab wound. He was charged with murder. He died of a heroin overdose while out of jail on bail, awaiting trial.

Bob Woolmer, Coach to Pakistan Cricket Team, would be found dead in the white-tiled bathroom of Room No. 374, on the 12th Floor of The Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston. It is now a ‘hot tourist destination’.

Janis Joplin (105), Jimi Hendrix (507), Whitney Houston (434), Sridevi (2201) are just some more who have met their end in a Hotel Room.

Does the temporary nature of staying in a Hotel inspire oddities? So many rationales, none of which begin to explain why you would dangle your baby outside a window [Michael Jackson, Hotel Adlon Kempinski, Berlin].

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As per Court Orders, Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik must prepare a report. At present, Leela Palace, New Delhi is spearheaded by 2 sisters, grand-daughters of Captain Chittarath Poovakkatt Krishnan Nair, one of them a fan of Wes Anderson. Connoisseurs of alleged crime wait eagerly for their next step.