Kolkata: Kolkata Police has busted a fake COVID-19 vaccination racket after TMC's Lok Sabha member, Mimi Chakraborty, was duped by the group. The racket was being run by a bogus IAS officer, posing as the joint commissioner of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC). The actor-turned-politician got suspicious after she didn't receive a certificate for vaccination even after more than a day post-vaccination at the said vaccination camp at Kasba in the southern fringes of Kolkata.
Chakraborty immediately informed the local Trinamool Congress MLA and state minister, Javed Ahmed Khan, who informed the police about the matter. The police enquired with the KMC authorities who confirmed that they have not given any permission to the said vaccination camp in Kasba.
According to police, they started investigating the matter and on Wednesday morning arrested one Debanjan Deb, who organized the camp by pretending to be a deputy commissioner of KMC. Chakraborty said that she actually went to the camp as an invitee having the knowledge that it was organized for vaccination of the third gender and differently-abled people.
Also read: Governor interfering in administration of state Assembly: West Bengal Speaker
"After reaching there I decided to get myself vaccinated also. But after being vaccinated when I did not receive the certificate on my mobile I asked Deb about it. He said that the certificate will come soon. I waited for a day and even after that I didn't receive the certificate. My associates again enquired and they were told that the certificate will come within two to three days. Then I got suspicious. I informed the people and authorities concerned and the racket was busted,” she said.
Police officials said that the arrested person comes from an educated family and his father is a retired excise collector. In fact, Deb himself wanted to become an IAS officer and even appeared for the examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission but failed to succeed.
The police are now enquiring as to how Deb managed to acquire such amounts of vaccine and more importantly whether the vaccines available in the camp were genuine at all. The deputy commissioner of police (eastern suburban division), Rashid Munir Khan said that whether the vaccines are genuine or not will be known only after tests. “If these vaccines are found to be fake then the people who received the vaccines from the said camp will have to get vaccinated again,” he said.
Also read: ED transfers Rs 9,371.17 cr assets seized in Mallya, Nirav, Choksi cases to PSBs, Centre
Meanwhile, a police official said that after initial investigation Deb has confessed that while some vaccines he procured by presenting counterfeit documents, some vaccines he acquired from a medicine dealer based out of a wholesale market in Kolkata.
The chairman of the board of administrators of KMC, Firhad Hakim said that if any employee of the corporation is found involved with the racket strict action will be taken against them as per the law.
