In the days following the death of Aabesh Dasgupta, speculations ranging from moral debauchery to a love-triangle have made the rounds. Investigations are still underway but here’s the truth: A young boy lost his life.
A class 12 student, Aabesh, was found dead with multiple injuries in Kolkata’s Sunny Park area, where he had gone to attend renowned author Amit Chaudhuri’s daughter’s birthday party on 23 July. The boy was allegedly hit by shards of a liquor bottle during an assumed altercation.
Centralising a crude form of social policing to the hard loss suffered by his friends and family is belittling death. Any death.
In response to all the fodder-mongers – with a hope to get to the bottom of Aabesh’s death – his friends and family are seeking justice for the deceased teenager on the ‘Justice for Aabesh’ page on Facebook.
A Call For the Real Truth
His friends, family and many other supporters have come forward to not only pay their respect and demand justice, but also ward off maligners who seem hell-bent on making this a debate about ethics – and the societal dos and don’ts.
The main cause of drawing attention to this issue is simply because of a proper explanation, to know the real truth behind the death. We are not talking about Aabesh’s social life, we are talking about his death.Facebook Post on ‘Justice For Aabesh’
In another post, psychiatrist Jai Ranjan Ram points out how cruel and unkind it is to blame the death of a child on his parents, carers or teachers around him, and conveniently shift the responsibility to a group of individuals instead of society as a whole.
Friends, Family and Well-Wishers Join the Cause
We have designers, performers, artists, musicians, filmmakers and many more among us who are relentlessly volunteering efforts to keep this movement alive against the strategies of the murderer/s who are bent on their effort to prove this as an accident.Another Post on ‘Justice For Aabesh’
The Shocking Prejudices and Consequent Reactions
Translation: This would never have happened had he not been drinking (at the party). This only happens to kids from ultra-modern, ‘hifi’ households. One belonging to a frugal household always manages to stay alive with two meals a day.
Aabesh’s mother expresses her concern on the page about such judgments and opinions that do not consider the fact of the boy’s death for a second, but only denounce the supposed affluence that they say led up to it.
Taslima Nasreen’s Standpoint
Author Taslima Nasreen, too, expressed her condolences and dismissed the ludicrous allegations.
A translated quote from her Facebook post.
Aabesh had to die because his mother gave him money for the party? Why do people spew such nonsense? One spoils a kid when he/she is given expensive things like a computer or a phone? [...] Any tragedy brings out the moral custodians of society ready to vouch for traditions, as if tragedies strike only this age.Taslima Nasreen
The Crusade Continues
We almost believe....almost....that a 17-year-old boy, who could well have been our son, deserved to die because he was carrying a bottle of beer.....and perhaps drinking from it! Because his mother had given him Rs 1500 to spend on a friend of a friend’s birthday party......his death should be turned into jokes and stupid homilies to be shared on social media?Post on the FB page
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