Police suspect hand of corporation officials: Vaccine scamster set up 8 bank accounts, one in the name of a govt entity

Deb used 'official' stamps to authenticate correspondence, police suspect corporation officials helped him forge documents

Debanjan Deb.: Twitter

Arnab Ganguly   |   TT  |  Calcutta   |   27.06.21 : The SIT’s probe into the affairs of Debanjan Deb, the fake IAS officer arrested for fraud, including organising fake Covid immunisation drives,  has unearthed eight bank accounts run by him including one using the name and initials of an existing state government entity.

Police sources said he had set up this company named,  M/S WBFINCORP, to pay salaries to his staff. Ten people who were, or are still, in his employment have been summoned for questioning.

“Apart from this, we are also examining more people. Some are being cross-examined,” said Murlidhar, joint commissioner of police (crime) on Sunday.

Officially, the West Bengal Financial Corporation is run by a board of directors, with representatives from the state government, the Small Investment and Development Bank of India, State Bank of India, Life Insurance Corporation and other organisations in the finance sector. The corporation mainly provides long-term loans for acquiring land, building, machinery as well as project financing.

Police suspect Deb had either set up the bank account on his own or received help from influential quarters to run his own account through  the West Bengal Fincorp. Among those who may have helped him were people or officials associated with Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC), they believe.

Further investigations are on. "How he made those documents, how those got verified are being probed. Possibly someone or a group of people had helped him create the fake documents,” said a police source.

Debanjan and three associates of his have been arrested and are now in custody. The police have identified the three as Sushanta Das (54), Rabin Sarkar (31) and Santanu Manna (44).

Deb’s racket of organising fake vaccination camps was discovered last week on Wednesday after Trinamul MP Mimi Chakraborty was given a “vaccine” but did not receive either a message or certificate for it on the Co-WIN portal. 

Police sources, however, said during interrogation Deb has claimed that he had written to the Serum Institute of India requesting for supplying the vaccine, Covishield. The police are trying to trace the email that Deb claims he had sent to the company. Deb had created the  ID,  deputymanager@kmcgov.org using G Suite.

“He has confessed to organising two camps, one at the City College and the other at his Kasba office. He claims he had not organised any other camps,” said a senior police officer of the SIT.

Deb was suspected to have organised a similar camp at Sonarpur in South 24-Parganas. To establish the credentials of his company, Deb would write letters to various government agencies and mark them “received.” Stamps of various departments of Calcutta Municipal Corporation, Information & Cultural Affairs Department, Public Works Department, West Bengal State Election Commission have been found with him.

“He used these stamps to  'acknowledge'  letters he had written and fabricated replies to. Possibly this is how he convinced people he duped... showing them the fake letters,” said a police officer.

Police have included the charge of murder against Deb and his associates who were allegedly part of the fake vaccination camps where hundreds of people were immunised.  Police suspect the liquid used as shots was antibiotic Amikacin Sulphate in some cases.

The investigation by the SIT revealed, Deb had swindled traders and private firms worth nearly a crore in the last two years. A private firm paid him  Rs 1.2lakh for vaccinating its 172 employees. From a pharma company, he had received Rs 4 lakh for clearing a tender. A contractor had paid him Rs 90 lakh for constructing a stadium.