KOLKATA: Kolkata Police arrested two more associates of Debanjan Deb, including one of his cousins, in connection with the vaccination scam on Monday night.
After conducting a high-level meeting at Swasthya Bhavan on Tuesday, the state Health department decided that the beneficiaries who had received fake vaccine doses at the camps organised by Deb can be injected with Covid vaccine after a gap of 14 days of their receipt of the purported jab.
Sources informed that the Enforcement Directorate has started a preliminary inquiry about the case and sought information from the Kolkata Police.
Deb, along with the two arrested persons Kanchan Deb, his cousin, and Sarat Patra, who had injected the purported jab at the Kasba camp organised by Deb were produced at Alipore Court and remanded in police custody till July 5.
Meanwhile, the Defense Counsel had pleaded for bail of Debanjan claiming that he had no evil intention in organising camps and needed consultation of a psychologist. The prayer was turned down by the court.
The police appealed for adding four more stringent sections of IPC that included dealing with fake medicines and Section 51 of the Disaster Management Act against Debanjan and others. The court granted the same. The police informed the court that a number of fake documents, holograms etc had been recovered during the course of investigation and it was found that money worth crores had been credited into his fictitious account that he had opened in the name of WBFINCORP.
During investigation, the sleuths learnt that Kanchan was associated with his brother from the very beginning. Patra, who used to work at a doctor's chamber in Taltala, was recruited for administering the fake vaccine doses.
A businessman from Taltala on Tuesday claimed to have lodged a complaint with Kasba police station against Deb for allegedly cheating him of Rs 4 lakh by showing him false tenders of KMC. Deb had bought a computer and its accessories along with projectors for the purpose of providing training.
Meanwhile, Kanchan had informed police that Debanjan had conducted a fake UPSC exam at the ATI library in Ultadanga. Police are verifying his claims.
Cops have also come to know that Debanjan had conducted an election in the name of West Bengal Employees Federation elections. "He had also conducted an election where his employees cast votes. After the election, he declared himself the winner," a senior police officer said.
Meanwhile, the state Health department has decided to reach out to those who had received fake vaccines and counsel them. Some of the beneficiaries had complained of mild complications after taking the fake vaccine.
"We are waiting for the forensic report which will ascertain the exact composition of the medicine that was injected in the camps held by Deb. Primarily, we believe that no harmful chemical was present in the injection. So, it has been decided that Covid vaccine can be given to the beneficiaries after a gap of 14 days," a senior Health department official said.