Kolkata teen death: Teen family rejects CCTV footage theory

Aabesh Dasgupta’s family has rejected a CCTV footage which the Kolkata police claimed suggested that the teenager’s death at 6 Sunny Park in Ballygunge on July 23 evening was accidental.

According to Aabesh’s family, the footage failed to provide the detailed picture of what had exactly happened at around 6 pm when the CCTV, installed at one corner of the basement of the upscale housing apartment, captured the movement of some boys and girls from a long distance.

The CCTV footage which was showed by the special investigation team officers to the family members of the 17-year-old deceased at Lalbazar, the city police headquarters, on Thursday was aired in many news channels on Friday. But it could not unravel the mystery which shrouded the death of Aabesh and raised more questions than it answered. The CCTV footage indicated a boy, identified by the police as Aabesh, walking along the ramp aparently in an inebriated state. Suddenly a group of boys and girls was seen moving hurriedly from one side to another.

They appeared to be with the boy who was later found however walking away from them. Whether the boy was attacked or fell down accidentally however remained vague in the CCTV footage.

The police claimed that Aabesh, carrying a liqour bottle in his arm-pit, later fell over the ramp’s wall and suffered grievous injuries from the broken liqour bottle. But his mother Rimjhim Dasgupta alleged, “This footage is incomplete. It does not prove that Aabesh’s death was accidental. It is a mere suspicion that he died accidentally.” Aabesh’s uncle Ritesh Thakkar claimed, “We wanted to know from the detective department officers on Thursday evening about how they found Aabesh died accidentally. They said they learnt it from an eye witness.”

He alleged, “Unfortunately the witness is none other than the primce accused.” Unhappy with the police investigation into Aabesh’s death under mysterious circumstances, five of his family members knocked at chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s door at Harish Chatterjee Street in Kalighat in the morning.

At around 12.45 pm the chief minister met them for around seven minutes. After the meeting Ms Dasgupta said that the chief minister assured them the truth would come out.

She claimed, “The chief minister said she already gave an order for investigation so that truth would come out and the assailant would be caught. She elaborated that the police is probing the case and the investigation is yet to be complete. I told her that there many questions which has remained unanswered.”

Ms Dasgupta added, “The chief minister told us that she will look into the case and assured that the guilty will be punished even if the accused is be found to be a juvenile.”

Aabesh’s grand mother Krishna Pal said, “The chief minister made it clear that the influentials would not succeed. We depend on her since she is the home minister.” Aabesh’s family members and relatives will take out a silent rally from Lake Avenue to Hazra on Saturday afternoon.