E-Paper
Man loses ₹4 crore in insurance scam in Ludhiana, FIR registered after 3 years
Fraudsters lured victim by promising huge returns within a year of attaining maturity; used to call him from different mobile numbers by disguising as agents, govt officials
A city resident has lost ₹4 crore to fraudsters, who lured him by promising huge returns on insurance policies.
After investigating the matter for more than three years, the police on Saturday registered a first information report (FIR) against the unidentified accused.
According to the investigating officials, modus operandi of the fraudsters was similar to the one adopted by the Delhi-based criminals, who were arrested by the Ludhiana police on October 17. They had duped people of over ₹100 crore by persuading them to make investments.
ACCUSED USED DIFFERENT NUMBERS TO CALL VICTIM
As per the victim, Satish Kumar Jain, 68, a resident of Tagore Nagar, the accused had called him on several instances with different phone number and names, each time insisting him to invest in their company.
It was when it struck to him that he was duped, Jain approached the police in June 2016.
In his complaint, he mentioned that in 2003, he had purchased some insurance policies which were supposed to attain maturity in 2015.
He recalled some of the names as Mahinder Singh Grewal, Suchetna Ghosh, Alok Desai and Abhinav Mittal. “The accused introduced themselves as executives of various insurance companies and offered perks and rewards along with huge interest on principal amount,” Jain said.
He added that he was assured that his policies worth ₹4 crore would start giving him benefits from 2016. When he received nothing from the company, he lodged his complaint with the police.
CASE PROBED BY ADCP-RANK OFFICIAL
Division Number 8 station house officer (SHO) Inspector Gurmit Singh said Jain’s case has been investigated by an ADCP-rank official.
“During investigation, police found out that different persons posing as insurance agents and other government officials had duped Satish Kumar. It also came to the fore that the accused had even forged some documents to commit the fraud. The persons, who made phone calls to Jain, used fictitious names and later suspended their mobile numbers,” he added.
The SHO said that the first information report (FIR) in the case has been registered under Section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
He said it could be the handiwork of the same gang, members of which had landed in the Ludhiana police’s net on October 17.
The police had then arrested one Mosami of New Delhi’s Moti Bagh along with Sunil Kumar of Sultanpuri in New Delhi, Yogesh Kumar of Mangolpuri, also in Delhi, and his brother Akash Kumar.
As per the police, the accused, who used to work at a Delhi-based call centre, had duped people of at least ₹100 crore in past six to seven years in the name of investment to avail lucrative offers and returns.
The police had recovered 12 mobile phones and data of at least 20,000 insurance-policy holders from their possession.
During investigation, it was also found that the accused had procured mobile connections by using fake identification proofs.
The accused eventually confessed that they had obtained the data of insurance-policy holders from employees of various insurance companies at ₹4 per customer.
ADVISORY ISSUED
The police on Saturday issued an advisory to city residents, warning them against fraud calls. Police commissioner Rakesh Agrawal has advised people not to share their debit card, credit card, pin code and OTP details to anyone.
