'Fake' Vaccine Drive: Kolkata Man Arrested, SIT Formed After TMC Leader Mimi Chakraborty Duped into Getting Jabbed

A man has been arrested by the Kolkata police for running a fake COVID-19 vaccination camp in Kolkata’s Kasba area. The accused have been identified as Debanjan Dev. He was arrested after Trinamool Congress leader Mimi Chakraborty filed a complaint against him.

Chakraborty and over 100 others had taken the jab at the fake vaccination centre run by Dev who posed as an IAS officer. After busting the fake COVID-19 vaccination camp, the police brought the accused to the site and seized vials that have been found to be ‘dust and some liquid’.

The Kolkata Police on Friday constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the fake vaccination drive. “We have formed an SIT with officers of the detective department to probe into the matter. “The accused seems to have cheated many people stating that he is in-charge of several development projects,” a senior officer of the Kolkata Police told PTI.

The police on Thursday seized all the materials from the vaccination camp and have sent the samples for forensic examination. According to police, different types of vials were seized, along with gloves and sanitisers.

The police found a large number of vials of Amikacin injections. It also found fake labels of Covishield at Dev’s office.

The vaccination camp was organised in the name of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) by Dev. It was going on for the last two months and many people had taken the jab at the vaccination camp. However, none of them had received any confirmation message from CoWIN.

To encourage people to come forward to take jabs, Mimi Chakraborty got herself vaccinated there. However, she got suspicious when she did not receive a confirmation message from CoWIN even after four days of vaccination. She filed a police complaint against Dev after which he was arrested.

The Lok Sabha MP said that she does not have any complications post vaccination at a fake vaccination camp. However, she said that fake vaccines given may adversely impact others.

The police said that Debanjan had also vaccinated 72 people after holding a vaccination camp at City College, Kolkata, with the help of a former student leader of the college. The police officials are questioning him and investigating the matter in detail.

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