News Analysis India

Tag: Kolkata Vaccine Scam

  • ED conducts raids across 10 locations in Kolkata in connection with fake vaccine case

    By ANI

    KOLKATA: Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday conducted raids across 10 locations in Kolkata in connection with the fake vaccine case.

    Officials carried out the raids at different locations in Kolkata. The officials also confirmed the raids.

    Earlier, Debanjan Deb who was impersonating as an IAS officer was arrested by Kolkata Police for conducting fake vaccination drive.

    On July 3, the office of Debanjan Deb was raided by the Detective Department of the Special Investigation Team (SIT).

    According to the Kolkata Police, voluminous material, such as attendance registers, visitor slips, applications for jobs, fake tender documents and several others were seized.

    Prior to this, an SIT was formed on June 25 by the police to investigate the matter just days after TMC MP Mimi Chakraborty was allegedly given fake vaccination at such a camp. Deb was subsequently arrested based on Chakraborty’s complaint.

    On June 26, the West Bengal government had formed a four-member expert committee to examine the effect of the fake COVID-19 vaccination in Kolkata and also take corrective actions.

    Further probe in the matter is underway. (ANI)

  • Kolkata vaccine scam: CM Mamata says govt has no role, calls accused ‘more dreadful than terrorist’

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Describing the arrested vaccine scam accused Debanjan Deb as “more dreadful than a terrorist”, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said that she has asked the police to take the strictest action against him.

    Banerjee said that the Trinamool Congress government has no role in organising the fake Covid vaccination drive and rejected the BJP’s demand for a CBI probe on the matter.

    Deb, who impersonated as a joint commissioner of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to set up camps where people were administered fake Covid-19 vaccines, was arrested last week.

    “The state government has no role in it. People have to understand it. Several people who look decent cheat people. I do not consider them as human. They forge signatures of chief ministers and the prime minister. Such people are more dreadful than terrorists.

    ALSO READ | Kolkata vaccine scam: Accused told police he wrote to Serum Institute for Covishield

    “We have taken very strong action against him. I have spoken to the (Kolkata) Police Commissioner thrice. An SIT has been formed and investigations are on. All those who have helped him will also face strong action,” she said.

    The chief minister said that the police and the KMC cannot shrug off their responsibilities in this matter.

    Dismissing the BJP’s demand for a CBI investigation into the matter, Banerjee claimed without elaborating that saffron party leaders had helped several traitors in the state.

    On those who have been “inoculated” in the dubious camps organised by Deb, she said that an expert committee will decide whether or not they need to be given vaccines again.

    The police arrested the 28-year-old man on June 23 for allegedly posing as an IAS officer and organising a COVID-19 vaccination camp in Kasba area, where actor and Trinamool Congress MP Mimi Chakraborty had also got her jab.

    She had fallen ill on Saturday.

    “I have spoken to Mimi and enquired about her health. She has a gall bladder-related problem,” Banerjee said.

    Chakraborty, who was invited to attend the camp, had said she became suspicious about the vaccination process as she did not receive the customary SMS that is sent to people after they are administered a dose, and informed the police.

    Later, the police also arrested three associates of Deb and included the charge of attempt to murder along with other sections of the IPC against them.

  • Fake IAS officer duped people of lakhs of rupees: Kolkata police on vaccine scam

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Arrested fake IAS officer Debanjan Deb has been impersonating as a joint commissioner of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) for the last four months and has duped a few people of several lakhs of rupees on the pretext of helping them get tenders of the civic body, a Kolkata Police officer said after initial probe.

    Deb, who lied to his family about becoming an IAS officer, might have used that money to organise fake Covid-19 vaccination camps, pay salary to his employees and rent for the office, the officer said on Friday.

    The 28-year-old man came in contact with several police officers and political leaders while participating in various programmes organised for social causes, the IPS officer said adding that four persons were called for questioning as part of the investigation.

    “Deb was an IAS aspirant but could not crack the UPSC examinations. In 2018, he told his father and relatives that he passed the tests and became an IAS officer,” he said.

    Deb told interrogators that he started a business of selling sanitiser, masks and PPE kits last year and made a “good profit” but at that time he did not identify himself as a KMC joint commissioner.

    “But slowly, when people started approaching him for help in Covid-19 related needs, Deb promised them assistance as an official and started going around identifying himself as a joint commissioner of the KMC. He fell into his own trap,” the officer said.

    He hired a vehicle, recruited men and rented an office in Kasba area of the city, the cop said.

    In the process, he came in contact with a few contractors and sub-contractors of the KMC and allegedly cheated two persons.

    One of them filed a police complaint alleging that Deb had taken Rs 10 lakh from him promising him to get a tender of the KMC.

    Another person has also approached the sleuths of Kolkata Police claiming that Deb had taken Rs 90 lakh from him, out of which Rs 36 lakh was transferred to a bank account, for getting a tender of the KMC to construct a stadium, the police officer said.

    “He might have used the money to run these camps as well as pay salary to the people he had recruited and rent for the office,” the IPS officer said.

    However, the probe is still at a very preliminary stage, he said.

    “There is not much money left in the accounts about which Deb has told us. Our officers at the anti-bank fraud unit are using his PAN card details to check whether he has any other bank accounts or not. We have also asked the banks to provide details of all transactions he had through these accounts,” he said.

    Deb had claimed of organising a “khichri” distribution camp in Behala with the help of a local club and the police have started verifying it.

    The items seized from Deb’s office included pads having fake logos of the KMC and the West Bengal government.

    “We have found from his office several letters written by him to secretaries of various departments. It seems that he wrote them to influence people but never dispatched them. We are verifying the matter with the respective persons,” the police officer said.

    The Kolkata Police on Friday constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the fake vaccination drive.

    Deb held two camps in the city where thousands of people were suspected to have been inoculated.

    The police arrested Deb on Wednesday for allegedly posing as an IAS officer and organising a COVID-19 vaccination camp in Kasba area, where actor and Trinamool Congress MP Mimi Chakraborty had also got her jab.

    Chakraborty, who was invited to attend the camp, said she became suspicious about the vaccination process as she did not receive the customary SMS that is sent to people after they are administered a dose, and informed the police.

    “At the camp held in a college, 72 people have been inoculated. We are trying to find out how many were vaccinated in Kasba,” the officer said.

    Deb got labels of Covishield printed from somewhere in Sealdah area of the city, he added.

    The fake labels were found pasted on several vials of an antibiotic injection used for a number of bacterial infections.

  • Fake vaccination: Police forms SIT, BJP demands CBI probe as Trinamool denies link

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The raging controversy over the fake COVID-19 vaccination camps in parts of Kolkata on Friday snowballed into a political storm ensnaring into it several Trinamool Congress leaders, prompting the opposition BJP to demand a CBI probe into a “larger conspiracy” in the case.

    The Kolkata Police formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by the joint police commissioner (Crime) to investigate how the main accused Debanjan Deb who, impersonating as an IAS officer, organised COVID-19 vaccination camps where around 2000 people were suspected to have administered fake doses.

    “We have formed an SIT to probe into the matter. Senior officers of the Detective Department are there in the team,” a senior Kolkata police officer told reporters here.

    The incident triggered a political storm after purported photographs and videos of the arrested person along with several TMC leaders and ministers at various programmes came in public domain.

    PTI could not independently verify the authenticity of the photographs or videos.

    According to police officials, Deb allegedly had financially duped several people in Kolkata by impersonating as a joint municipal commissioner of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC).

    On his social media accounts, he had posted several pictures of organising medical camps and participating in government programmes.

    The TMC leadership, however, denied any involvement in the matter.

    “We are politicians and attend several programmes every day. Many people come to us and click pictures. It is not always possible to ascertain their identity. The allegations against our leaders are baseless and politically motivated,” senior TMC leader and minister Firhad Hakim said.

    After its defeat in the assembly polls, the BJP was looking for an issue to corner the TMC government and is quick to grab it and demanded a CBI probe to look into the matter.

    It is a conspiracy of the TMC as it is trying to tarnish the BJP-led Union government with a claim that it has provided fake vaccines, claimed Suvendu Adhikari, leader of the opposition in the state assembly.

    “We apprehend that the West Bengal government and the ruling party have hatched a large conspiracy to implicate the Centre. They are helping people with disputable identity to organise camps where fake jabs were administered to defame the Narendra Modi regime.”

    “If there was any adverse impact on people who were inoculated, the TMC will blame the Centre for providing fake vaccines,” he said.

    Adhikari led a BJP delegation to Swasthya Bhawan, the state health department headquarters, and questioned officials how a person impersonating as an IAS officer has been organising vaccination camps remained off the radar of the police and the department for so long.

    “The fake IAS officer organised several camps and brought busloads of people from other areas. How can it be that he was not caught earlier? Was he being shielded by the ruling party? It is a large conspiracy. Only a probe by a large agency like the CBI can unravel the truth,” he said.

    The ruling TMC dubbed the allegations as baseless and politically motivated.

    “If just a photograph proves someone guilty, several BJP leaders should be put behind bars for having being photographed with several scamsters. The police, in this case, arrested the prime accused and will unravel the truth,” senior TMC leader Tapas Ray said.

    Meanwhile, the Kolkata Police Commissioner Soumen Mitra said that the organisation of fake COVID-19 vaccination camps by a man pretending to be an IAS officer is an act of a “distorted mind”.

    “What Debanjan has done is very inhuman. It can only be done by one with mental distortion,” Mitra told reporters.

    A PIL was filed before the Calcutta High Court on Friday seeking an investigation into the vaccination fraud by an independent probe agency.

    The police arrested Deb on Wednesday for allegedly posing as an IAS officer and organising a COVID-19 vaccination camp in Kasba, where actor and Trinamool Congress MP Mimi Chakraborty also got her jab.

    Chakraborty, who was invited to attend the camp, said she became suspicious about the vaccination process as she did not receive the customary SMS sent to people after they were administered a dose and informed the police.

    During a search in Deb’s office, police seized several vials of an antibiotic injection used for many bacterial infections and other items that were sent for tests.

    It was also found that fake labels of Covishield were pasted on the vials of Amikacin injections used for a number of bacterial infections.

    Fake logos, letterheads, and pads of the KMC were also seized from his office.

    On what could be the purpose of Deb in holding such free camps, a senior Kolkata Police official said it is yet to be known, but he might have political connections that helped him in organising those camps.

    The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has started an internal inquiry into the matter and is also spotting people who have taken vaccines from his camps.

    Deb used to travel in a large car with a fake logo of the state government and a personal security officer.