Owner of office space used by accused held

KOLKATA: The Kolkata Police on Wednesday night arrested the landlord of the office space, which was taken on rent by the main accused in the fake vaccination case, Debanjan Deb, at Kasba.

Deb had run a purported vaccination camp from this office, where several persons, including actor and Trinamool Congress MP Mimi Chakraborty had received the fake jab.

The landlord, Ashok Kumar Roy, was picked up from his home in Birati. Roy was allegedly instrumental in publishing two news items about Deb in a leading Bengali newspaper. Roy was produced before Alipore Court on Thursday and was remanded in police custody till July 5.

According to police, Deb had taken the office space in Kasba on rent from Roy during September last year and used to pay him Rs 65,000 every month. Cops suspect that Roy knew about Deb's activity but did not raise any alarm.

Roy has, however, claimed that he was unaware of Deb's fraudulent activities and about 50 persons who were his friends and family members had taken the jab from Deb's fake vaccination camp. The sleuths are verifying his claims. The police also suspect that Roy knowingly published news about Deb conducting a raid and winning an employees' election in the newspaper.

Meanwhile, the cops have sought details of the accounts opened by Deb with a private bank's branch using forged documents.

Sleuths are trying to know whether any verification was done or not from the bank's end before opening the accounts.

Sources said Deb had identified himself as assistant project director of Kolkata Environment Improvement Investment Programme (KEIIP) and had written to an official in Nabanna too. KEIIP is involved in a number of drainage and water supply projects of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

In the fake letter, he had mentioned having a suite on the first floor of KMC in his office address.

However, no such suites exist on the first floor and all senior officials of the KMC, including the Chairman of the Board of Administrators, Commissioner and Secretary have room numbers as part of their office address.