KOLKATA: The 28-year-old accused in the fraud vaccination camp case has been charged with attempt to murder.
If held guilty, Debanjan Deb, could be imprisoned for life or minimum 10 years.
“We will submit a prayer before the court to add Section 307 of the IPC (attempt to murder) against Deb,” said joint CP (crime) Murlidhar Sharma.
Any person who commits and act with intention or the knowledge that the same could cause death would be held guilty of the charge.
Deb was arrested on Tuesday for organizing multiple vaccination camps, in which hundreds of people, including MP Mimi Chakraborty, were injected with suspected antibiotic instead of Covid vaccine.
It was Chakraborty who had alerted the police after she got suspicious of Deb’s camp when she did not receive her vaccination certificate even four hours after getting her shot.
Three new cases have been registered against Deb at the Kasba police station, taking the number of FIRs to seven.
An equal number of complaints have been pending at several other police stations.
The SIT set up to probe the case booked Deb for attempt to murder after the state administration brass asked police commissioner Soumen Mitra to ensure he received the harshest punishment for deceiving people and putting their lives at risk .
Police said the suspected antibiotic administered to at least 587 recipients could cause severe harm to them and Deb had done so knowingly.
The SIT on Saturday arrested three associates of Deb who helped him run the fake centres and open a current account fraudulently in KMC’s name.
The three were appointed by Deb who reportedly said they were working for an NGO operated by the KMC.
Two of the accused, Sushanta Das (54) from Salt Lake and Rabin Sikdar (31) from Barasat, were the alleged signatories of the fake KMC bank account, which Deb opened last December.
The third arrested, Taltala resident Santanu Manna (44), reported collected personal details of “vaccine recipients”, including their Aadhaar data, and helped Deb run the fake camps.
The Alipore court sent the three to police custody till July 2.
In the new FIRs at Kasba police station, police said the total cheated amount would cross Rs 1 crore.
In the first case, one private firm alleged they paid Deb around Rs 1.2 lakh to get its 172 employees vaccinated.
Another Tangra contractor claimed he was cheated of Rs 90 lakh after Deb promised to get him a contract for the construction of a stadium off EM Bypass.
In the third FIR, a pharma company claimed Deb cheated them of Rs 4 lakh by promising to arrange a tender on their behalf.
By evening, a medicine trader claimed Deb had not paid him Rs 26 lakh after buying medicines from him.
The private bank, which was provided fake documents to open a current account, is also contemplating filing a case.
Police will also probe the role of some KMC officials and contractors.
“We are writing to KMC to know if he was awarded any contracts directly.
We are also enquiring if he had access to any officer at the headquarters,” said a source.
His police links will also be investigated.
“We are asking OCs to report how Deb took part in the programmes held by the force,” said a senior officer.
Deb’s links with information and cultural affairs department officials, with whom he had worked at times from 2014 to 2017, are under scanner.
Cops visited Taltala, where Deb had stored his Covid kits at a club and met politicians and traders during 2020 Jagaddhatri Puja.