Teen death case: Writer Amit Chowdhury questioned

The police on Tuesday interrogated writer Amit Chowdhury, his daughter and some of her friends who had attended her birthday party to ascertain Aabesh’s cause of death. The father of the victim’s friend, who had studied with Aabesh in the same school from childhood, was also questioned on Tuesday.

The interrogation continued for hours and it is learnt that the investigating officers have asked each one of them to narrate whatever they had witnessed on the day of the incident. Videography of each and everyone’s statement has been done in the scientific wing of the city police’s detective department.

It may be recalled that 17-year-old Aabesh Dasgupta had died due to excessive bleeding after he had received injuries on his armpit. He had received the injury when he went to attend the birthday party of writer Amit Chowdhury’s daughter on Saturday.

In the past two days, the investigating officers have come across different statements about the incident of the day and most of his friends had claimed that he had received the injuries after falling accidentally on the floor with a bottle of alcohol in his hand. On the contrary, the victim’s mother claimed that it was a murder and lodged a complaint against “unknown persons”.

The police were waiting for the post-mortem report. But their task had become difficult when they had failed to come to a conclusion if it was a murder even after the post-mortem report.

Thus, the police have decided to interrogate those who had witnessed the incident on Saturday. When a set of policemen were interrogating them at Lalbazar, some officers from the detective department’s homicide section went to Princeton Club where they had celebrated the birthday of Chowdhury’s daughter.

It was also learnt that the police have not got hold of any footages of surveillance cameras of the moment when they victim and rest sixteen teenage boys and girls were having food in the restaurant on that day. Thus, the police interrogated the employees and officials of the club who were on-duty in the restaurant and the lounge area. Police came to know that they had taken selfies in their cell phones while moving around on the lounge after having food in the restaurant.

A police officer said that they would corroborate statements of the victim’s friends and that of the employees of the club. The police are also trying to find out why the father of one friend of the victim had told Aabesh’s mother that the girl who he had proposed is not of good nature. Again, the same person had told the girl’s mother that she shouldn’t allow her daughter to get mixed with Aabesh as he was not a good boy.

On Sunday, the police had got hold of the conversation of Aabesh and his friends in a WhatsApp group named - Panda 100 - to solve the mystery behind the murder. It led the investigating officers to an information that the victim and his friends were scheduled to attend a surprise party where the girl to whom he had proposed a few days ago was also supposed to be present.

During a conversation in the WhatsApp group, the victim had advised his childhood friend saying “…..if you want someone you’ve gotta give all your focus and attention to that person…and not be distracted…and you were too distracted today”. The conversation, however, continued with another member of the group (name cannot be disclosed as minor) replied saying “Its okay I know. He gets distracted around me cuz we dating”.

The victim’s friends had started leaving the group soon after the incident on Saturday night. The investigating officers were going through the call records, Facebook chat and WhatsApp conversation of Aabesh.

The police were also going through footages of surveillance cameras installed in the parking lot of Sunny Park.

A police officer said that they may question some other friends of the victim to know whether they had seen any abnormalities in him or any of their friends. The conversation in which mainly Aabesh, his childhood friend and a girl was involved raised suspicion of the investigating officers and they suspect that “it could be a crime out of jealousy”.