KOLKATA: Fake IAS officer Debanjan Deb, arrested in connection with the dubious vaccine camps case, was questioned by sleuths 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.
On Monday, the police questioned 12 people who are present and former employees of Deb, he said.
"Some of the employees said that they got the job after paying him money," the officer said.
Since 2020, more than Rs 2 crore was transacted through the bank accounts Deb was operating, he said adding that the arrested man had taken a loan of Rs 20 lakh from a private bank submitting forged documents.
A case of cheating and forgery was on Monday lodged at Hare Street police station against Deb after a person lodged a complaint that the fake IAS officer had purchased items such as sanitiser and masks worth Rs 1.2 crore but made no payment.
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.