Kolkata: Boy found killed after party at Amit Chaudhuri's house, author denies knowing him

Author Amit Chaudhuri has claimed that his daughter as well as most of the group present in the party "did not know" Abesh Dasgupta.

Representational image

Kolkata: The West Bengal Police on Sunday registered a case of murder after a teenager was found dead with multiple injuries at the apartment complex of Amit Chaudhuri where he had gone to attend a birthday party of the daughter of the noted author.

A grievously injured Abesh Dasgupta (17), a Class 12 student, was found in a pool of blood in the ground floor car park of the apartment complex in South Kolkata's Ballygunge on Saturday.

He was later declared dead at a hospital. A blood-soaked neck of a broken bottle was found from the spot.

While the police on Saturday registered a case of unnatural death, a murder case was initiated on Sunday following a complaint by the Dasgupta family.

"A murder case has been initiated. A post-mortem examination is being conducted. Prima facie it appears the death was caused due to massive bleeding," said a police officer.

Alleging that cover-up attempts were being made, the boy's mother demanded interrogation of all who attended the birthday party.

"At the hospital, all the kids said they did not see anything, they all are saying they are unaware. How can this happen? It was a party, a murder happened and none of them know anything? How is that possible?"

"Police should interrogate all the kids, then only the truth will come out," Abesh's mother Rimjhim Dasgupta said.

While the Dasgupta family claimed that their boy went to attend the birthday party of Chaudhuri's daughter Aruna, the Sahitya Akademi Award winning author claimed that his daughter as well as most of the group present in the party "did not know" Abesh.

In a statement, Chaudhuri said: “A tragic incident occurred on 23rd July on the premises of the building in which my family and I live in Calcutta, with which our connection is entirely unfortunate, tangential and wholly unexpected. It has occurred during a time when we are grieving for my mother’s death last week. I feel I need to clarify the partly garbled and occasionally intrusive reportage that has appeared in some of the press. Some reports point out that a boy died from an injury in a parking lot in our building amidst a group of young people, who had first congregated for a birthday in my flat. The reports also point out that I rushed the injured boy to a hospital in my car once I discovered him bleeding in a garage in the early evening.”

“A few crucial facts need to be added to the sequence. Firstly, the gathering, meant to celebrate my daughter’s eighteenth birthday, had not been organised by us, but by two of her school friends, and was completely unknown to my daughter until she returned home on Saturday at 12.30 pm after her tuition. It was a surprise, and our only condition was that, given the circumstances of mourning for her much-loved grandmother, we would prefer it if they had lunch outside. Secondly, my daughter and, indeed, most of that group did not know the boy who later died of an injury. He had not been invited by those who’d put together the occasion and had come with one of the five boys in the group. Thirdly, there was never any alcohol made available to anyone anywhere in our flat; my wife and I are anyway teetotallers,” the writer added.

Chaudhuri added: “Almost everyone returned to the building at around 4.30 pm after lunch. I was informed by my driver at 6.10 pm that a boy was bleeding downstairs. The group had splintered before into different groups, and most of the young people there didn’t see what happened to this boy, who was in the playground with his friend and possibly someone else. When I arrived on the scene, I found that two in the group were attending to the boy in the garage. Others were trying to call an ambulance. They had also tried to hail a yellow cab to take him to a hospital, but the cab hadn’t stopped.”

“I tried to ascertain this boy’s details in order to contact his parents, but couldn’t, as no one had that information, and the friend who had brought him along had left suddenly in his car. I called an ambulance immediately,” he added.

“I put him in my car with the two young people who had been trying to help and told my driver to take him to the emergency ward of a nearby hospital. I followed in another car with my wife and daughter, but reached emergency first. We told staff to prepare to attend to what seemed like a very serious injury. The boy could not be saved. Nor could his parents’ identity and contact details be discovered till later, as the boy who had brought him had vanished,” he said.

“Our hearts go out to the family of the deceased, but it should be understood that it’s a traumatic time for my family, given we’ve been thrown into this tragic situation during a time of grieving in a way that had little to do with us. We tried to help a young man none of us knew and feel distressed not to have succeeded in doing this,” the author said.

(With Agency inputs)