E-Paper
Kalka man duped of ₹1.97 lakh in fake insurance maturity scam
According to the complaint, Sushil Kumar Sahni received a call on February 7 from a woman who introduced herself as an assistant with Punjab National Bank MetLife Insurance, Maharashtra. She shared details of his policy and advised him to close it by paying the final instalment.
A 64-year-old man from Kalka was duped of ₹1.97 lakh by cyber fraudsters who posed as officials of an insurance company and lured him on the pretext of releasing his policy’s maturity amount.
According to the complaint, Sushil Kumar Sahni received a call on February 7 from a woman who introduced herself as an assistant with Punjab National Bank MetLife Insurance, Maharashtra. She shared details of his policy and advised him to close it by paying the final instalment.
On February 9, the caller again contacted him and claimed that if he deposited ₹98,000, he would receive ₹9.85 lakh within 5–6 days. Trusting her, the complainant transferred the amount to the account provided. Later, on February 12, another person posing as a fund manager contacted him, shared a receipt of the payment, and sought his PAN card, Aadhaar card, and policy details, which he sent via WhatsApp.
The fraudsters continued contacting him and, on March 16, informed him that his policy maturity amount was ₹13.50 lakh, but he needed to deposit ₹99,500 as tax. After repeated calls, including one from another person posing as a PA, the complainant transferred the amount on March 23.
However, when he visited the bank in Sector 17, Chandigarh, on March 25, he was informed that no such payments had been received, following which he realised he had been cheated and approached the police.
Cybercrime police, Panchkula, have registered an FIR under Sections 318(4) (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 61(criminal conspiracy.) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and started an investigation into the matter.
