India: Accused nabbed, confesses to organising fake Covid-19 vaccination camps

Accused Debanjan Deb, who allegedly organised fake Covid-19 vaccination camps impersonating an IAS officer, has confessed to having organised two such camps in the city, said Kolkata police on Sunday.

Police said the accused confessed to organising fake vaccination camps at -- City College and Kasba

“He claims that he wrote a mail to Serum Institute of India for sending Covishield. This is being verified. He has also confessed to organising two camps. One at City College and one in his office at Kasba. No other camp for vaccination was organised elsewhere,” police said.

They informed that accused Deb’s staff and ex-staff are being examined by police.

“Ten such persons have been summoned for examination or are being examined. Apart from this, we are examining more people called for cross-examination. He used to write letters to various government agencies, would put receipt stamps on those letters to convince the victims. He himself would write a response to such a letter,” the Police said,

“He created fake email accounts like deputymanager@kmcgov.org. A huge number of stamps - of various department Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Department of Information and Cultural Affairs, Public Works Department, and WBSEC have been found. A total of eight bank accounts have also been found so far. Out of these, one was in name of his company WBFINCORP, through which he used to give salary to his staff,” police added.

Earlier on Friday, an SIT was formed by the police to investigate the matter two days after TMC MP Mimi Chakraborty was duped in the fake vaccination drive. Deb was subsequently arrested based on Chakraborty’s complaint.

• India