Kolkata Police today ruled out the murder theory in the Abesh Dasgupta death case and said the 17-year-old boy died due to injuries he met after falling from a small wall in the lawn of the Sunny Park residential complex on July 23.
According to Kolkata Police Joint Commissioner (Crime) Visal Garg, going by the CCTV footages at the Sunny Park complex, circumstantial evidences and statements of several witnesses including those present at the birthday celebration, security guards and other witnesses, sleuths were of the opinion that there was no "conspiracy" behind Abesh's death.
Speaking to reporters, Garg said "There is no conspiracy behind Abesh's death. It was not pre-planned and the boy died primarily because of the injuries he met after falling down from a small wall, which he tried to scale to take a short cut to the lawn from the parking lot of the Sunny Park complex where his other friends were present."
CCTV footage of the place showed people were consuming liquor sitting in a scattered manner at the lawn of the complex, he said.
Footage also showed Abesh holding a bottle in his left hand and walking in an imbalance manner on the ramp while coming out of the parking lot.
"CCTV showed that after coming out of the parking lot, he was walking on the ramp in an imbalance way. There was a small wall in between the parking lot and the lawn. Abesh probably wanted to go to the lawn quickly and tried to climb it and fell down losing his balance on the lawn itself. There was nobody around him that time.
"There was no footage for around 20 seconds from this place," he said.
"After that, footages showed Abesh getting up with blood all over his body... He started moving back and went on to hit another obstacle. Footages showed after that his friends came running towards him. While a few started pumping his chest, others tried to wrap his shirt around the wound to stop the bleeding," Garg said.
In fact, one of the 19 persons had called up Lalbazar
Control dialling 100 and it was also verified at the Kolkata Police headquarter, Garg said.
According to the IPS, a few of Abesh's friends went upstairs taking the lift and informed writer Amit Chaudhuri and his wife about the mishap and all these were caught on the building's CCTVs.
"That Abesh was taken by two of his friends in a car followed by Amit Chaudhuri and his wife in another car was also in the footages," he said, adding none of those gathered at the Sunny Towers after the birthday celebrations of the writer's daughter, fled the place.
Police spoke to security guards, all 19 persons and the drivers who were present at the lawn during the incident and drew a picture by their statements and circumstantial evidences, the IPS officer said.
"Going by that, we have found there is not even one per cent indication that the death was a pre-planned one," Garg said.
However, the final decision depends much on the post-mortem as well as forensic reports, he stated.
"Our investigation is not over yet. This is not our conclusion. We will call everybody for questioning if needed," Garg said.
Abesh's mother and his uncle were called by Kolkata Police sleuths tonight for a "formal briefing" about the progress of their investigation into the mishap.
Abesh's family members, however, refused to accept the "no conspiracy" theory behind the 17-year-old's death and kept on claiming that the it was a case of murder.
"There are so many questions which are still unanswered. There are so many missing links and discrepancies in the versions of Abesh's friends who gave interviews to news channels. This is a clear case of murder," Abesh's aunt Krishna Paul said.
Meanwhile, during investigation it evolved that Abesh and
his friends bought alcohol from a liquor shop on Sarat Bose Road while going to a club located in the southern part of the city.
Denied entry because they were not members there, the 19 persons went to Princeton Club on Anwar Shah Road to celebrate Amit Chaudhuri's daughter's birthday.
While coming back they again bought three bottles of alcohol from one shop opposite Birla Mandir in the Ballygunge area, the police said.
The Detective Department of the Force yesterday arrested three persons including the owner of the liquor shop in Ballygunge and the owner of the shop on Sarat Bose Road for selling liquor to minors.
Sleuths so far have grilled over 25 people, many of them twice, in connection with their probe into Abesh's death. The Police had seized around 20 mobile phones from those, including Abesh's friends, who were present at the car park of the apartment complex during the incident.
The boy accused by Abesh's mother and the girl with whom Abesh had an emotional relation, were called for questioning by the Police at Lalbazar today, Garg said.
"This was to verify their statements with those given by others," he said.
Abesh, a class XI student, was killed last Saturday when a youth accompanying him to the birthday party allegedly hit him with glass shards during a quarrel in the car parking lot of the writer's apartment at the upscale Ballygunge area.
The city police has started a murder case against "unknown person" in connection with the death of Abesh on the basis of the statement of his mother.
