A health worker was arrested from West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district on Saturday on the charge of operating unauthorised Covid-19 vaccination camps in the state, a police officer said. The arrest was made a month after the police apprehended one person for allegedly posing as an IAS officer and organising a vaccination camp in Kolkata’s Kasba area, where actor and Trinamool Congress MP Mimi Chakraborty had also got her jab.
Chakraborty, who was invited to attend the camp, said she became suspicious about the vaccination process as she did not receive the customary SMS that is sent to people after they are administered a dose, and informed the police.
Those inoculated in Sonarpur camps organised by the arrested man also allegedly did not receive any text message or certificate and reported the matter to the police. Acting on their complaints, the police on Saturday nabbed the accused from a house in Sonarpur’s Rupnagar locality where he was organising another camp, the officer said.
The police found that he charged Rs 300-400 from individuals for vaccinating them and he has inoculated at least 40 to 50 people so far.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the arrested man had worked at a primary healthcare centre in Diamond Harbour in South 24 Parganas district and as a vaccine coordinator at a health sub-centre at Masat in Bankura district.
”He left the job (at Masat) and started working as a coordinator at Sonarpur,” the police officer said.
It is suspected that while working there, he stole Covid-19 vaccine vials and later used them to inoculate people,” he said.
A few vials used by the accused were seized and sent for chemical tests to find out whether the vaccines are genuine or not. The police are looking for another person who has been assisting the accused in running the camps.
