TMC MP Mimi Chakraborty on Wednesday said she was duped by a man who posed to be an IAS officer and requested her presence at a COVID-19 vaccination camp organised by him at Kasba area in the Southern fringes of Kolkata on Tuesday.
The vaccination drive was reportedly organised in the name of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC). About 200 to 250 people were administered with Covishield vaccine, along with Mimi Chakraborty, who also took her first dose of the Covishield vaccine during the camp where she was invited as a chief guest. Apparently, the Jadavpur MP was called in to encourage people from the transgender community and physically handicapped to come forward and take the vaccines.
I took Covishield vaccine at the camp to motivate people for taking jabs. But I never received a confirmation message from CoWIN. I lodged a complaint with Kolkata Police & the accused was arrested. He was using a car with a blue beacon & fake sticker: Mimi Chakraborty (2/2)
— ANI (@ANI) June 23, 2021
Mimi, who herself got vaccinated at the drive, said her suspicions grew after she received no confirmation message of being vaccinated from the CoWin platform. She lodged a police complaint with the Kolkata police and the accused was arrested. He was reportedly using a car with a blue beacon and a fake sticker.
In an interview with India Today, Mimi said the organisers of the vaccine drive initially informed her that she would be receiving the vaccine certificates in a few hours. Later, they informed her that it will take 3-4 days. This raised her suspicions. She asked others in the camp if they received any confirmation message or vaccine certificate. When none of them received any SMS from the CoWin app and vaccine certificate, she felt something was amiss and filed a complaint with the police.
“The vaccine certificate should not take 3-4 days. I enquired with others (who took the vaccine at the camp) whether they have got the registration message. They said they did not do any registration or didn’t receive any message. I realised immediately and with the help of the local administration and police, I got him arrested,” Chakraborty said.
The police reached the vaccination camp at 6 pm on Tuesday evening. Even though the camp was organised at the KMC, neither the Special Commission of KMC nor local councillor Susanta Ghosh was aware of any such vaccination drive.
As per the police sources, the accused Debanjan introduced himself as the joint commissioner of KMC during his interrogation, and even furnished an identity card of an IAS officer. However, he was detained and brought to the police station on account of discrepancies in his statements.
In the midst of a rigorous interrogation, Debanjan finally broke down and confessed to his crime. A large number of documents, including fake identity cards, government stamps, requisition forms for collecting vaccines from health buildings were retrieved from him.
