Last-minute friends give last rites a miss

Kolkata: On Saturday, Aabesh Dasgupta spent the last few hours of his life with 16 of his friends enjoying a birthday party. And on Tuesday, when the family conducted his last rites, not one of them turned up to mourn him.
Grieving over the death of her son, Rimjhim Dasgupta told TOI that the absence is a pointer to the fact that something was amiss."If my son actually died of an accident, why didn't they come even today? Why are they so afraid? Why are they not even taking our calls?" she raised the questions yet again.
Suffering from high blood pressure, Rimjhim stayed mostly indoors at their Lake Avenue flat on Tuesday. Neither she nor her mother went to her Mudiali house where Aabesh's last rites were being conducted.
"It would have been a welcome surprise if any of them would have dropped in here like some of his other friends did. Not all of the 16 have been accused by my sister. At least some of them could have shown the courage to meet us," said Hridesh Thakkar, Rimjhim's brother who performed most part of the ritual.
Since the death of Aabesh, Tuesday was the first time his grandmother - 83-year-old Dipali Dasgupta - came out of her room and interacted with relatives and neighbours. She spent the entire ritual staring at Aabesh's photograph, occasionally shifting her glance to look up to the ceiling and stare at an old but well-kept chandelier and wiping off tears flowing down her cheeks.
Later in the afternoon, she asked the relatives to take her to the Lake Avenue apartment where Aabesh's mother had been staying since the death."I was not having the courage to face my mother-in-law so far. I felt guilty for not being able to bring her grandson back home. But she walked up to me today and said she was there alongside me in the fight to seek justice," Dasgupta later told TOI over phone.
Throughout the afternoon, the family had a range of visitors - from actress Rituparna Sengupta to a group of Aabesh's schoolfriends.
"Aabesh was a sweetheart. We seek justice for him," said one of them.
Away from the public glare, another girl, who had grown very close to Aabesh in just a month, said she wanted to attend the last rites but couldn't, fearing an adverse and unwelcome reaction from the family. She wasn't there at the Saturday afternoon party and said was equally clueless, shocked and grief-struck over the Class XII boy's death but did not have the courage to face his mother.
"Since the news of his death, I have wanted to go and meet her several times but could not gather the courage. I have learnt she and the family think Aabesh and a common friend had apparently fought at the party over me and that led to his death. I don't know how she would react. Even though I want to be by her side and share the grief, I don't have the courage to do so," she said.
She, however, added that she was ready to help the police in whichever manner possible if the cops seek her assistance. "Aabesh was a very close friend and I seek justice for him," she said on Tuesday.
Just as Aabesh's last rites got over in the afternoon (it was conducted between 11.45am and 1.15pm), seven teenagers out of the 16 (who were with him on Saturday) walked into Lalbazar - around 2.30pm - to record their statements in front of the detective department officers.