An illegal Covid vaccination camp was held in Kasba purportedly under the aegis of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation, barely a kilometre from a civic health clinic where doses were often much fewer than the number of people in the queue.

The illegal camp was held about 150m from the local CMC ward coordinator’s office but no civic official apparently knew about the camp, where fake shots were allegedly administered.

Kasba police station is about 1.5km from the site where the illegal camp, allegedly organised by Debanjan Deb, was held. The police have claimed no knowledge of the camp, as well as others allegedly organised by Deb.

The police said Deb, who had posed as an IAS officer and a joint commissioner of the CMC, had put up flexes and boards at the vaccination site bearing the emblem of the civic body.

The camp was held in a building — located in a lane opposite Acropolis Mall — that houses offices of a public sector bank and a public sector insurance company.

The claims of lack of knowledge by the CMC and the police on something that should have been staring in their face has raised concerns among residents.

“How is it possible that police and CMC officials knew nothing? It is surprising that hundreds were being vaccinated at a camp at a time when civic health clinics were reeling from shortage of doses. Yet no one found anything suspicious. This sounds incredulous,” said a resident of Kasba.

Jadavpur MP Mimi Chakraborty went to the camp, took a jab herself and spoke at length about how she was trying to popularise the state government's efforts to vaccinate people against Covid.

After his arrest on Tuesday, Deb spoke about a CMC official whom he said he called on often at the civic body’s headquarters on SN Banerjee Road. The police have contacted the person and have apparently not found any material evidence to link the two.

Police sources said the person held an important post and was directly involved in the CMC’s vaccination project. “We have not yet found any direct link between Deb and anyone in the CMC,” said an officer in the probe team.

Sushanta Ghosh, the outgoing councillor of the CMC's Ward 107, where Deb held the illegal vaccination camp, said he had alerted civic officials the moment he knew about the camp.

“It was only on Tuesday that a large number of local people were administered shots and I got to know about it. Earlier, the organisers had mostly brought people from other places. The CMC logo was used on Tuesday. I immediately called the borough health officer and asked him to enquire about what was happening. That is how the matter came to light,” said Ghosh.

The office of Ghosh on the Gariahat-Ruby connector is about 150m from the site where the camp was held.

The ward 107 health clinic of the CMC, on P Majumder Road, is about a kilometre from the site. A CMC official said they had no knowledge of the camp running there. “After we were informed about the camp, one of our officials went there. His phone was taken away before he was allowed to enter. He came out and reported that the CMC logo was being used at the camp. As we enquired further, we came to know that the corporation had not organised any such camp,” the official said.

Doctors of the civic body on Thursday met those who were “vaccinated” at Tuesday’s camp and enquired about their health. The meeting was held at Kasba New Market.

“Seventy people met the CMC doctors. Most were anxious about what would happen to them. A few reported that a dark spot had formed at the injection site. Many said they did not suffer from any adverse reaction,” said an official.

“If anyone who took the vaccine at the camp organised by Deb encounters any health issues, he or she should visit the ward 107 health clinic of the CMC.”

Foundation glare

The foundation stone of Tripura Shankar Sen Shastri Memorial Library in central Calcutta has the name “Shri Debanjan Deb (joint secretary, West Bengal government)” at the bottom of a list that includes the names of former mayor and current chairman of the CMC’s board of administrators, Firhad Hakim, and MLA Nayana Bandhopadhyay. Bandhopadhyay on Thursday lodged a complaint with Taltala police station saying she was not involved in the foundation stone laying ceremony, held on February 26, 2021.