Teen death accidental, rules police

The Kolkata police, on the basis of prima facie evidence, on Thursday declared the death of Aabesh Dasgupta as accidental and ruled out any conspiracy or murder angle in the death of the teenager.

“On the basis of primary evidence — the CCTV footage and the statements of those who have been questioned in connection with the death of the teen have made us believe that his death does not involve any conspiracy or murder,” joint commissioner of police (crime) Vishal Garg said on Thursday.

Sleuths said that they have been able to retrieve 20 minutes of a CCTV footage of the apartment at Sunny Park which has revealed that Aabesh had toppled while scaling a cement wall little over two feet at around 6 pm on Saturday while he was approaching the playground from the parking lot of the apartment.

“Aabesh wanted to cross over a cement wall with a liquor bottle in his hand to come to the playground from the parking lot. He toppled and fell down.

“However, what exactly happened after he fell down is not clear as there was no CCTV on that side. However, within a few seconds he is seen climbing up on his own. After walking a few steps, he fell collided against the wall again and fell down. Blood was seen profusely oozing out of his wounds,” an investigating officer said. Two of his friends, a boy and a girl who were sitting on a swing, immediately rushed to his rescue.

During the course of the investigation, the sleuths have recorded statements of Aabesh’s friends, the security guards and some others who were present in the apartment at that time and corroborated them, the investigating officer said.

There has been discrepancies in statement of some of his friends. Two of Aabesh’s friends who were on the swing had claimed they had called author Amit Chaudhuri and informed him. The author had said he was called by the security guards after which he was taken to hospital.

Krishna Devi, Aabesh’s garndmother, however, insisted that it was a murder. “The police is making up a story under the influence of his friends’ parents who are influential,” she said.

The police made the fourth arrest in the case on Wednesday night when Mahadeb Purkait, the seller of a bar at Sarat Bose Road was arrested by the anti rowdy section from where Aabesh and his friends had purchased liquor prior to that of a shop at Syed Amir Ali Avenue. “He has been arrested for selling liquor to somebody who is less than 21 years of age. This is not permitted,” an officer said.