Teen’s decomposed body found hanging inside abandoned flat
Times of India | 11 March 2024
Kolkata: A highly decomposed body of a teenaged boy was recovered from an abandoned flat located off Diamond Harbour Road in Thakurpukur on Sunday morning.
Though preliminary evidence and investigations suggested that the body belongs to a woman, the police said it turned out to be that of a teenager. Even though a postmortem is yet to be done, doctors who have examined the decomposed corpse said it belongs to a teenaged boy who appears to have died by suicide. The body was found hanging from the ceiling. A foul smell around 10 am on Sunday led locals to inform the police.
“Prime facie, it seems like the body of Amar Gayen (17), who had been missing since Jan from his residence at Thakurpukur, located within 200 metres from the flat where the body was found. The victim seemed to have died by suicide with the help of a towel (gamchha). Police said the victim had carried a gamchha with him. When asked, he had told his mother that he was going to take a dip in a local pond,” said a cop.
Locals wondered why cops failed to trace the youth for so long though he had barely moved out of his locality.
“Preliminary findings show that the victim, a student, was under stress over a few personal and family related issues. We have ordered an inquest and the postmortem is being conducted to ascertain the exact time of the incident. We are investigating why this abandoned flat was chosen and whether any foul play was involved,” said an officer from Thakurpukur Police which is investigating the case.
The victim’s elder brother said Amar would often stay out of his home due to some new friends. He said Amar was planning to drop out of studies which had led to resentment in the family.
Signs of mental illness or stress are ignored due to lack of awareness about it, the knowledge that it can be treated and the stigma attached to it, said consultant psychiatrist J Ram. “While a lot more now acknowledge and recognize mental illness as a disease, there’s still a tendency to ignore it. This can have multiple consequences at the level of the individual, family and the nation as a whole,” said Ram.