E-Paper
Retired Panjab University official loses ₹48 lakh to fraudsters promising insurance bonus
In June 2013, employees of Davis Club company contacted him, informing that LIC had declared a bonus of ₹38 lakh in his favour
Eyeing a ₹38-lakh bonus against a matured insurance company has left a retired Panjab University assistant registrar poorer by ₹48.46 lakh.
Given the runaround since 2013 by multiple callers, who made him invest different amounts of money to get the bonus, Tarsem Lal, a resident of Adarsh Nagar, Nayagaon, contacted the police in February 2017 after realising that he had been defrauded.
After a four-year probe, the Sector-11 police have registered a case under Sections 420 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code.
Lal had told the police that he retired from PU in January 2013. He had an LIC policy that matured in December 2012 and he received the insured amount in April 2013.
In June 2013, employees of Davis Club company contacted him via phone, informing him that LIC had declared a bonus of ₹38 lakh in his favour. He was informed that the bonus will be sent to Davis Club and to receive it he will have to become a member by depositing ₹25,000, which he did. They asked him not to get in touch with LIC, as he will lose 40% of the bonus money.
After three months, they asked him to invest ₹15 lakh in the company, but they could not be contacted thereafter.
In March 2014, one Jyoti Bhagat and Ganpati Dass called him and claimed that they were working with RBI, Mumbai, and will help him get the money back within 45 days. They asked him to pay ₹11.30 lakh for this. After delaying the matter, they also switched off their mobile phones.
Then, one Riya Gupta called and told him that his bonus file had been received, but before release of payment, he needed to deposit ₹4.80 lakh as advance tax in the bank account of one Vikram Singh.
Thereafter, Shweta Tewari called him and asked him to transfer another ₹4.70 lakh in the account of one Rajesh Kumar Khatri. But they could not be contacted after October 2014.
Similarly, he was made to pay ₹75,000 in the account of Perimero Club Holiday, and ₹67,000 and ₹65,000 to different insurance companies. Later another person got him to transfer ₹21000 in the bank account of Care India Services. All these callers had lured him to get his money back from Davis Club, Lal told the police.
On February 25, 2016, he got a message saying his file had been cleared and through one Om Prakash, he was made to invest ₹9.5 lakh in Prime Land Corporation for release of money, but they kept delaying the release date.
Later, one Mohan Kumar Walia informed him via phone that in November 2016, after demonetisation, the income tax department had raided Davis Club company and found that it was working illegally. Lal was informed that the money he invested had been sent to SBI for repayment, but was told to pay ₹5,500 as cost of forms. However, he never received any bonus or his payments back, following which he contacted the police.