Elders stood by as kids screamed for help

Kolkata: The

CCTV

footage that police are investigating shows at least four teenagers trying to help

Aabesh Dasgupta

after he allegedly fell and injured himself. It also shows several residents, guards and drivers standing quietly or moving around unconcerned even as the children ran helter-skelter, screaming for help. Questions are now being raised on the role of these onlookers who apparently saw him bleed to death.

The teenagers have told investigators that no elder came to their help until writer Amit Chaudhuri rushed down from his eighth floor flat. "There were several onlookers around us but none of them came forward. One of us dialled 100, another tried to call an ambulance and someone else tried to hail a cab but none of the adults did anything to help us," said one of Aabesh's friends who took him to hospital.

Chaudhuri, whose daughter's birthday the teenagers were celebrating, also pointed out the non-cooperation on the part of the adults in the building. "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. There were plenty of onlookers from the building, but no one except these young people was doing anything to help," he said.

Parents of other children also felt the children's efforts should be recognised . "I believe the children behaved with a lot of courage. Had they got a little help from the adults, the boy could have been saved," said the mother of a boy who had helped Aabesh.

The father of another girl said that at

Sunny Park

, there was only one person, a resident of the building who tried to call an ambulance and others didn't even do that. "In fact, some of them even left the place expressing an aversion to blood. Others just stood and watched," he said.

Kishore Bhimani

, president of the

Sunny Park Apartment Owners Association

, said there were only four security guards and they were very busy since it was peak evening hour. "I would not say people's behaviour can come into question. It takes 10 to 12 minutes to size up any situation and act, especially, if it involves transporting a bleeding person. In any case, the nature of injury was such that even if someone had tried to do something, it had to be done within a few seconds and with some amount of medical knowledge," he said.

The father of the boy who had allegedly fled the spot after the incident and was accused by Aabesh's family, told on Friday that even the CCTV footage hasn't brought any relief. "Intense interrogation has taken a toll on my son's health. On days, he was interrogated for 14 hours till as late as 2am. But my son has cooperated. He is also distraught because Aabesh happened to be his dear friend," he said. Remembering the long hours of statement recording by police, another girl, who is a key witness, said: "The police asked us the same set of questions when we had nothing else to add."