Vaccination scam: Cops trace 8 bank accounts of fraudster

KOLKATA: The Detective Department of Kolkata Police traced eight bank accounts of Debanjan Deb, who posed as an IAS officer and allegedly organised fake vaccination camps. One of the accounts was opened in his company's name styled as M/S WBFINCORP.

Sleuths believe that Deb who used to disburse salary of his employees through this particular account did so in a bid to convince his employees that they were getting paid from the state government's Finance department. However, the police have not found any link of Deb with the West Bengal Financial Corporation (WBFC).

During interrogation, Deb claimed to have sent a letter to Serum Institute officials for sending Covishield. The sleuths are verifying the matter.

"We have recovered a huge number of stamps - from various state government department's like Information & Cultural Affairs, Public Works Department and West Bengal State Election Commission (WBSEC)," an investigating officer said.

Interestingly, one of Deb's employees Mithun Ghosal, who used to drive his company's car claimed before the media on Sunday that his owner used to do some work related to voter's list but maintained confidentiality over the entire exercise. "I was associated with drop and pick up and was directed not to talk with anyone. I was threatened of being transferred to Dhapa if I did not obey his order. The car which I drove had a Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) sticker,"Ghosal said.

The sleuths, who had recovered several fake stamps of KMC after conducting raids at his residence in Madurdaha and his Kasba office, have also stumbled upon a fake email address styled as deputy [email protected]. The police have also summoned 10 employees of Deb's office for interrogation. A few of them were interrogated on Saturday and Sunday while others will be questioned soon. The police are likely to question Ghosal too for further leads. Some of his ex-employees are also in the interrogation list prepared by the Special Investigation Team(SIT).

According to sources, Deb had appointed a woman identified as Sushmita Banerjee as administrative officer in his Kasba office. Banerjee's signature was used in a number of forged documents of KMC where she was introduced as deputy secretary (KMC).

Banerjee was also present in both the fake vaccination camps that were organised at Kasba New Market and City College in Amherst Street. Banerjee, a resident of Taltala, had claimed that she was unaware of being signatory to any documents related to KMC. "I have also been duped by Deb. My 62-year-old mother, my brother and I have also received jabs from one of the two camps," Banerjee said.

Interestingly, there is no post of deputy secretary in the civic body. Deb has confessed to organising only two camps –one in City College and another in his office at Kasba. The police conducted a raid at his Madurdaha residence on Sunday night. Police have seized a printer, laptop and some forged documents during the raid at his residence that went on for two hours.