Two more arrested in fake vaccination racket in Kolkata – Hindustan Times

Two more persons were arrested on Tuesday in connection with the fake vaccination racket that was busted by the Kolkata Police last week.

Police had earlier arrested four persons including the mastermind, Debanjan Deb, 28, who had been impersonating an IAS officer for the past four months to organise fake vaccination camps.

The two arrested persons have been identified as Kanchan Deb, 37 and Sarat Patra, 52. While Patra had earlier worked under a doctor and was hired by Debanjan Deb to administer the fake injections to people, Kanchan Deb is Debanjan Deb’s cousin.

“Kanchan Deb had knowledge about the fraud from the beginning. He even used to cheat Debanjan Deb,” said a senior police official.

Till now sleuths have found transactions of over ₹2 crore in just one year in the bank account maintained by Debanjan Deb.

Also Read | Debanjan Deb: Saga of conman who spent his money to run fake vaccination camps

“He had taken a loan of ₹20 lakh from a private bank using forged documents. He had procured items such as mask and sanitiser worth ₹1.2 crore from a stockiest but never paid him. He hired employees who had to pay him for getting the job,” said the officer.

Earlier police had found that Debanjan Ded had cheated at least two private firms and a contractor of nearly ₹1 crore, impersonating a senior IAS officer.

Investigation so far has found Debanjan Deb had organised at least two fake vaccination camps in Kolkata, in which over 800 people, including Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mimi Chakraborty and family members of another TMC leader received the fake jabs. In one camp, police suspects the victims were given Amikacin, an antibiotic.

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation and state health department organised health camps to conduct health check-up of the victims.

While the Bharatiya Janata Party has demanded a CBI probe alleging that the mastermind had close links with senior TMC leaders, including ministers, MPs and MLAs, the ruling party leaders have rubbished the charges saying they might have come across Debanjan Deb in public programmes where it is not possible to check the credentials of each and every person.