Calcutta, July 23: A teenager died this evening after he was found bleeding in the car park in one of the toniest neighbourhoods in the city.

Aabesh Dasgupta, aged 17 and a Class XII student, was discovered lying on the floor of the car park at 6 Sunny Park, near Birla Mandir, in south Calcutta's Ballygunge.

Aabesh was said to have gone to the apartment complex for a get-together associated with author Amit Chaudhuri's eighth-floor home.

The grievously injured boy was found in the ground floor car park, near the play area where the party had moved in the afternoon. The blood-soaked neck of a broken bottle was discovered later in the play area. The car park is adjacent to the play area.

The death of Chaudhuri's mother earlier this week had prompted the family to turn the party into a low-key affair and shift it to the play area in the back of the building.

Seventeen teenagers - most of them, if not all, aged below 18 - from some of the best-known schools in Calcutta had attended the party, sources said.

Police sources said they were investigating whether the injury was the result of an accident or an alcohol-fuelled brawl.

On record, no officer was willing to speak till late tonight.

Alerted by the household staff around 6pm, Chaudhuri rushed down and found the boy bleeding, sources said. He called for an ambulance from AMRI, Dhakuria. However, in order to make sure that no time was lost, Chaudhuri arranged a car to rush the boy to the hospital and followed in another vehicle. This version could not be corroborated with Chaudhuri.

The boy was declared brought dead at the hospital at 6.50pm.

According to sources in the hospital, Aabesh had suffered a deep cut of about four inches below the armpit and running to his chest. "It looked like an injury caused by a sharp object, which led to heavy bleeding," said the source. Multiple small cuts were found on his left hand and a bruise on one knee.

Back at the play area of 6 Sunny Park, the police came across pieces of liquor bottles and patches of blood.

Aabesh's mother Rimjhim Dasgupta, who lost her husband this February, took ill after the news of her son's death reached her and had to be hospitalised.

Outside the hospital, the mother said: "There were so many of them at the spot and no one saw anything? How is that possible? It should take the police a couple of minutes to find out."

She added that one of Aabesh's friends had called her up, informing her of her son's injury. "I did not know anything before that," she said and broke down.

The police took her statement at the hospital late tonight, based on which a case was being drawn up by officers of Ballygunge police station.

In the absence of a clear picture, the police said tonight, they had not yet decided whether to name any individual as an accused. "We are suspecting the involvement of at least one of them. It will depend on what the deceased person's mother would say. If she names someone in her complaint, we will start a specific case," said an officer.

Sources said the teenagers had gone to two clubs where some of them asked for liquor but were turned down as they were underage. Then they returned to Sunny Park. "Some had liquor, from where is not clear, before they came back," said a police officer.

One of the 17 teenagers who had attended the party spoke of at least three bottles of vodka and added "we said not to drink" but the pleas were ignored. "I was about to leave with ****** (name withheld because he is a minor) when ****** (name withheld) came running to us, saying that Aabesh was injured. I went inside and saw him lying in a pool of blood. I don't know what caused his injury," the student added.

Another boy said later: "What I could make out was that Aabesh accidentally fell down and hurt himself. No one hit him."

One of the guards in the complex said: "I heard some noise from inside and rushed towards the play area to see a boy slumped on the floor in a pool of blood. He was writhing in pain. Amitbabu was already there. He was making frantic calls for an ambulance. When the ambulance did not come within the next few minutes, he took his own car out. His wife and daughter also accompanied him."