The parents of deceased OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji have sued the city of San Francisco and the San Francisco Police Department, alleging that the real cause of his death was not suicide, but murder.
The lawsuit, filed in January, alleges that the SFPD covered up the crime, ruling it a suicide without conducting a thorough investigation.
Balaji, who had worked as a researcher at OpenAI, was found dead in his San Francisco apartment last November. Attorneys say Balaji’s parents, Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy, requested further investigation into his death but were told the case was already closed.
“The lawsuit demands that the city, police department, and medical examiner release public documents withheld under the Public Records Act,” Joseph Goethals, attorney for the petitioners, told Decrypt. He said that if the documents weren’t provided within 10 days, and “no valid exceptions apply, a lawsuit can compel their release. We will seek a court order to obtain them.”
The lawsuit claims that SFPD violated the California Public Records Act by unlawfully withholding public records of the case. Attorneys for Ramarao and Ramamurthy also argued that the investigation into their son’s death was rushed and inadequate, with off…
