'Fake' Vaccine Drive Accused Was Questioned In Cheating Case: Bengal Cops

Fake IAS officer Debanjan Deb, arrested in connection with the dubious vaccine camps case, was questioned by officers of the Bidhannagar Police last year over a complaint of cheating regarding a job, a senior official of the Kolkata Police said on Monday.

It was at that time, Deb's family found that he was not an IAS officer, he said.

"In March last year, Deb was questioned at Electronic Complex police station after an oral complaint was made against him of attempted cheating regarding a job," the police officer said.

Meanwhile, investigators probing the vaccine camps case also found that between September and October last year, Deb rented a room in the Kasba area and started using it as his office, he said.

"He was paying a monthly rent of Rs 65,000," he said. Deb even conducted a raid as an "IAS officer" and the report of it with his photo was published in a newspaper, the official said.

A team of the Kolkata Police's Detective Department raided Deb's house in Anandapur and seized several stamps and forged documents of various state government departments, he said.

"Deb's father is in quarantine as he is suffering from COVID-19. We have seized several fake documents and some stamps with logos of various departments of the state government. We have also seized three debit cards and bank passbooks," the official said.

Deb was arrested a few days back for masquerading as the joint commissioner of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and operating a dubious immunisation camp in the Kasba area, where actor and Trinamool Congress MP Mimi Chakraborty also took a jab.

Three of his associates were arrested on Saturday as police included the charge of an attempt to murder along with other sections of the IPC against them.