Calcutta, Dec. 3: Rabindra Nath Bose lay on his hospital bed trying to figure out why his family was “targeted” after five-year-old Rick Nath’s body was found in a septic tank of their house close to midnight on Thursday.

The memory of the “blood-thirsty” mob, who stormed his house and set it on fire killing his wife Bela, refuses to leave him at the male surgical ward of Vidyasagar Hospital in Behala.

“The whole episode appears to be pre-planned. Or else, how can a mob go on beating us despite our cries for help? No one raised a voice of protest. Not a single soul stepped forward to ask the public to stop. I still can’t believe this,” mumbled Rabindra Nath from bed no. 29.

A red blanket covering his burn injuries, the 50-year-old manager of an engineering firm in Chanditala near Behala was barely coherent when he spoke to The Telegraph today.

“Who are these youths who led the attack? I have never seen their faces in our locality. Where did they come from? And how come they knew their way to that particular septic tank where the boy’s body was found?” he asked.

The short and stout Rabindra Nath then sat up and showed his burn injuries ? on his left arm and below. “Why were we beaten up in this way? If we were at fault, the locals could have handed us over to the police. But who are they to teach us a lesson?”

A few beds away, his 29-year-old son Kaushik tried to look through his swollen eyes. Face scarred with black marks and head bandaged, he had a pyjama wrapped around his body.

“I don’t know who set my parents on fire as I had already lost my senses. But the way they beat us up was simply inhuman. I tried to resist first and then gave up,” he said.