COVID-19: Left Front Protests Against Kasba Vaccine Scam Across West Bengal

Kolkata, June 29: The Sanjukta Morcha, SFI, DYFI and AIDWA protested outside police stations in West Bengal on Tuesday against the Kasba vaccine scam, which allegedly happened in collusion with TMC leaders.

In a press release, West Bengal Left Front Chairman Biman Basu said that the organisation has demanded that the probe into the scam be carried out under court supervision as many influential names were cropping up. The alleged scam involved fake COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination camps and had been organised in Kasba and the Sonarpur region of the state.

One Debanjan Deb, allegedly in collusion with TMC leaders, posed as an IAS officer and conducted free vaccination camps where fake COVID-19 vaccines were administered to people in the name of Covishield. More than 1,000 unsuspecting citizens have been at the receiving end of the crime. Even TMC MP Mimi Chakraborty was injected with a fake vaccine, the chemical composition is still unknown.

The local TMC leadership acted as facilitators of the camps. This particular one was conducted about 300 meters from the Kasba Police Station and the police, despite a case of cheating already registered against the offender, refused to act in time. Debanjan Deb was seen alongside the Chief Administrator of Kolkata Municipal Corporation Firhad Hakim and other TMC leaders associated with the corporation in multiple pictures

Protests took place on Monday too with protesters breaking through police barricades before the corporation office where the authorities intervened and allegedly manhandled many protesters, including women. The protesters were arrested but let off after two to three hours.

CPI(M) state secretariat member Samik Lahiri, Kolkata district secretary Kallol Majumdar the lone Sanjukta Morcha MLA Naushad Siddiqui also participated in Monday's protest. There were protests before the state health directorate with the police accused of manhandling unarmed placard-bearing protesters. The protesters shouted slogans and were arrested by the police following a scuffle.

CPI(M) state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra condemned the atrocities committed by the police.

The protests are expected to continue across the on Wednesday. In a press release Mishra said that the TMC, in collusion with the police, was trying to subdue protests using brutal force against a "heinous" crime such as forgery during the pandemic. O Wednesday also this protests will continue throughout the state. He also appealed to party activists to come out in support of the call by the Students' Federation of India, Democratic Youth Federation of India and All India Democratic Women's Association. He said that the fake camp organised in Kasba showed how common people has been fooled by "forgery" during the COVID -19pandemic.

He said the government was using its muscle power to silence any discontent, quipping that when the CM had stood up to the CBI earlier then rules around the pandemic were not used as a stick to beat the TMC with.

He also accused that the TMC government had always tried to "shield the cheats and cheaters" like during the chit fund scam and that a number of such scams had taken place under CM Mamata Banerjee.