Person claiming to be IAS officer of KMC organised fake vaccination camp, duped people of lakhs of rupees: Kolkata police

Arrested fake IAS officer Debanjan Deb has been impersonating as a Joint Commissioner of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) for the final 4 months and has duped just a few people of a number of lakhs of rupees on the pretext of serving to them get tenders of the civic physique, a Kolkata Police officer mentioned after preliminary probe.

Deb, who lied to his household about turning into an IAS officer, may need used that cash to organise fake COVID-19 vaccination camps, pay wage to his staff and lease for the workplace, the officer mentioned on June 25.

The 28-year-old man got here involved with a number of police officers and political leaders whereas collaborating in varied programmes organised for social causes, the IPS officer mentioned including that 4 individuals had been referred to as for questioning as half 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 mentioned.

Deb informed interrogators that he began a enterprise of promoting sanitiser, masks and PPE kits final 12 months and made a “good profit” however at the moment he didn’t determine 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 mentioned.

He employed a car, recruited males and rented an workplace in Kasba space of the town, the cop mentioned.

In the method, he got here involved with just a few contractors and sub-contractors of the KMC and allegedly cheated two individuals. One of them filed a police grievance alleging that Deb had taken ₹10 lakh from him for a young of the KMC.

Another particular person additionally approached the Kolkata Police claiming that Deb had taken ₹90 lakh from him, out of which ₹36 lakh was transferred to a checking account, for a stadium-construction tender of the KMC, the police officer mentioned.

“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 mentioned.

However, the probe remains to be at a really preliminary stage, he mentioned.

“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 mentioned.

The objects seized from Deb’s workplace included pads having fake logos of the KMC and the West Bengal authorities. “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 mentioned.

The Kolkata Police on June 25 constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the fake vaccination drive. Deb held two camps within the metropolis the place hundreds of people had been suspected to have been inoculated.

The police arrested Deb on June 23 for allegedly posing as an IAS officer and organising a COVID-19 vaccination camp in Kasba space, the place actor and Trinamool Congress MP Mimi Chakraborty had additionally bought her jab.

Ms. Chakraborty, who was invited to attend the camp, mentioned she turned suspicious in regards to the vaccination course of as she didn’t obtain the customary SMS that’s despatched to people after they’re administered a dose, and knowledgeable 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 mentioned.

Deb bought labels of Covishield printed from someplace in Sealdah space of the town, he added.

The fake labels had been discovered pasted on a number of vials of an antibiotic injection used for a quantity of bacterial infections.

Three associates arrested

Three extra associates of Deb had been arrested on June 26 morning in reference to the doubtful COVID-19 vaccination camps in Kolkata, the officer mentioned.

Two of the associates had been signatories of the checking account that was created within the title of KMC by the accused. The third particular person, who was on the payroll of Deb, had actively taken half within the camps the place a number of people had been “inoculated” by spurious vaccines.

“One of them is a resident of Salt Lake, while another is from Barasat. Both were called for questioning before they were arrested,” the officer mentioned.

The third particular person, a resident of Taltala, was arrested after police discovered him to be “very active” in serving to organising the camps.

Meanwhile, three extra instances had been registered towards Deb on the Kasba police station, the police officer mentioned.

“A private firm which claimed to have given him about ₹1.2 lakh to get around 172 employees inoculated lodged a complaint at the Kasba police station. Another complaint was lodged by a contractor who claimed to have paid him ₹90 lakh to get the tender for the construction of a stadium,” he mentioned.

“The third complaint was filed by a pharma company that paid him ₹4 lakh to get a tender,” he added.

Plaque bearing Deb’s eliminated

The KMC on June 25 dismantled a plaque bearing the title of Deb, together with Trinamool Congress lawmakers and a minister.

Two TMC MLAs lodged police complaints claiming that their names had been on the plaque, put in on the base of a bust of Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore at Taltala space in central Kolkata, with out their information.

The BJP tweeted that dismantling the plaque, on which Deb was referred to as an official of the KMC, was tantamount to destruction of proof.

It was put in on February 26 at a operate organised by a neighborhood studying library however none of the dignitaries was current, the native TMC ward coordinator mentioned. Names of these leaders had been included within the plaque with out their information, the ward coordinator claimed.

The plaque was faraway from the bottom of the bust and damaged into items by the KMC on the initiative of the ward coordinator.

A member of the KMC’s board of directors, Atin Ghosh, mentioned that no such programme was organised by the civic physique.

Senior TMC MLA from Baranagar Tapas Roy, whose title was on the plaque denied having recognized Deb or any information of the programme. “We were busy with election campaigning at that time. I have no idea how my name figured in the plaque,” Mr. Roy mentioned.

He mentioned he lodged a grievance with the police on this regard.

Another TMC MLA Nayna Bandyopadhyay additionally mentioned she lodged a police grievance on the matter.

Senior minister and head of the KMC’s board of directors Firhad Hakim mentioned that many people whose identities are usually not recognized come shut to political leaders to take selfies.

“If any of them prepares a plaque and gets his name written on a plaque along with the names of me and others, does that mean we have any link with him? Please keep in mind that none of us was present there,” Mr. Hakim mentioned.