Senior citizen loses ₹2.63 crore in insurance fraud; police book nine suspects

Noida Lured by the release of maturity amount of some insurance policies, a 70-year-old man from Sector 26 was allegedly duped of ₹2.63 crore by a gang of cyber criminals.

The victim, Surendra Kumar Bansal, lost the money in more than 100 bank transactions over a period of 10 months, his family members and lawyer said. The police have registered an FIR against nine suspects and are investigating the case, a senior police official said on Friday.

Bansal, a retired official from a private firm, lost all his retirement savings and also the money borrowed from his two daughters. Vandana Agarwal, one of his daughters, had filed a complaint with the cyber cell of the Noida police.

“My father had some retirement savings. In January last year, he received a dubious call from the suspect, Jagmohan Shukla, who pretended to be an official from the ministry of finance. He said that my father’s insurance policies have matured and money is due. But he conditioned that the money would be released after making some payment,” Vandana, who lives in Singapore, said.

The senior citizen got convinced and transferred ₹2 lakh in the given bank account on February 1, 2019. However, the gang members perceived Bansal as vulnerable and started demanding more money citing different terms and conditions. In the next few months, nine suspects – Jagmohan Shukla, Seema Aggarwal, Punam, Pratibha Agarwal, Shyamlal Gupta, Savitri Mahajan, Swami, Vandana, and Khurana – repeatedly called Bansal pretending as insurance company officials or bank officials and extracted the money.

The transaction details showed that from ₹2-10 lakh was transferred in each transaction, Vandana said, adding that she transferred ₹18 lakh in her father’s bank account on his request in July last year. “I believed he may have some work, and did not discuss the matter. Later, I was talking to my sister who revealed that she had also transferred ₹28 lakh to our father’s account sometime back. Then I got suspicious,” she said.

Vandana said she arrived in Noida in November last year and got to know about the fraud. She then contacted a lawyer and filed a police complaint.

Jaikush Hoon, the victim’s lawyer, said that when we enquired about the transactions, we came to know that the money was transferred in the accounts of some shell companies in Rajasthan, Delhi, Dehradun, Karnal, etc. “The suspects duped ₹2.63 crore in 101 transactions between February and November last year. The suspects had also sent a forged bank draft named on Bansal and mentioning ₹3.55 crore via email, and demanded more money to release it,” he said.

Hoon said that he had filed a complaint against the cyber fraud in November last year, but did not get any update. A complaint was also filed with the Noida police on July 28 this year, he said.

Rajesh S, deputy commissioner of police, Noida Zone 1, said that primary investigation in the matter was conducted by the DCP (headquarters), who directed the Sector 20 police to register an FIR. “Based on the complaint, a case has been registered against nine suspects under sections 420 (cheating), 406 (breach of trust) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of Indian Penal Code. After the investigation, action will be taken,” he said.