Fake Vaccination Vaccination fraudster Debanjan Deb's pictures with TMC leaders trigger row, all deny 'personal contact' with him
Kolkata/IBNS: Leaders of West Bengal's opposition parties demanded a proper investigation into the recently unearthed 'fake' Covid-19 vaccination drive in Kolkata by an independent probe agency after several images of ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders and lawmakers with the alleged vaccination fraudster Debanjan Deb, who had impersonated as an IAS officer, were found in social networking sites.
In his Twitter handle, accused Debanjan Deb wrote 'Public Servant' in the bio section and set his picture with IPS officer Gaurav Sharma as the display picture in an attempt to make his social media account more genuine.
The Twitter account is also showcasing multiple photographs of Debanjan Deb with veteran TMC leader-lawmakers, including Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim, and Indian Medical Association (IMA)'s Bengal secretary and TMC Rajya Sabha MP Santanu Sen.
All the leaders claimed that they did not know Debanjan Deb personally while Santanu Sen, on behalf of the IMA, on Friday lodged a complaint with the Kolkata Police against Debanjan.
The fraudster's social media account also exposed that besides holding at least three 'fake' and unauthorised 'Covid-19' vaccination camps, Debanjan had joined several programmes reportedly organized by the TMC party amid the pandemic.
It was also reported that Debanjan Deb was present at a mask-and-sanitiser distribution drive in South 24 Parganas' Sonarpur as the chief guest on June 15 and impersonating as a joint commissioner with the state government, he had shared the stage with local TMC MLA Lovely Maitra.
During the programme held by TMC's labour wing, INTTUC, it was heard that Lovely Maitra was mentioning him as an IAS official and thanking him for donating sanitizers and masks for the labourers.
After the real identity of Debanjan was revealed, Lovely Maitra claimed that she did not know him personally and the fake IAS was invited by local INTTUC leader Tapas Chatterjee.
Lovely Maitra, an actress-turned-politician who is the wife of an IPS officer, also said that she had lodged a complaint with the Sonarpur Police Station against Debanjan Deb.
A day ago, Debanjan Deb's name was found as a Joint Secretary with the names of TMC MP Sudip Banerjee, his wife and Chowringhee MLA Naina Banerjee, former Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, state minister Tapas Roy and ex-MIC of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Atin Ghosh, on the plaque of a Rabindranath Tagore bust in central Kolkata's Taltala area.
It was also noticed that someone had tried to cover the name of Debanjan Deb on the plaque using black ink after the fraud was busted.
Later, Atin Ghosh and Naina Banerjee denied their and the government or KMC's involvement with the Tagore bust and lodged police complaints against Debanjan.
Days ago, TMC Jadavpur MP Mimi Chakraborty had unearthed a fake vaccination drive organized by Debanjan Deb after she was allegedly duped by it and even got jabbed.
The city police arrested Debanjan Deb, and seized his vehicle with blue beacon and fake stickers and Biswa Bangla flag, and his fake KMC identity card.
Kolkata Police already carried out a raid at the office of Debanjan in Kolkata's Kasba area and seized several documents, injection vials, and electronic data from the location.
Senior city police officials said that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been constituted to probe the large-scale fraud.
Meanwhile, local authorities have already confirmed that Debanjan's team was injecting antibiotics which had no connection with either the Covid-19 or its vaccination.
A senior official with the KMC said that samples of the vials seized from Debanjan's possession had been sent to a forensic science laboratory for tests.
Meanwhile, the principal of Kolkata's North City College also lodged a complaint against Debanjan for holding a 'fake' vaccination camp at the college where he had allegedly jabbed more than 80 students.
"We have inputs that Debanjan had earlier duped few businessmen using fake KMC papers and we have already received two such complaints. We are merging all the complaints against the man and our SIT, which has been formed with the officials from our Detective Department, will probe the matter entirely," a city police official told IBNS.
PIL filed in Calcutta HC demading CBI probe into busted fake vaccination drive:
Demanding CBI probe into the fake vaccination drive organized by fake IAS officer Debanjan Deb, which was unearthed in Kolkata days ago, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed before the Calcutta High Court on Friday.
According to reports, Sandipan Das, a Kolkata based lawyer, filed the PIL.
The PIL has been registered and it is likely to be heard in the next week.
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