Gurugram: Insurance scam kingpin, who duped 200 people of over ₹4 cr, held

The Faridabad police, late Wednesday night, arrested a 34-year-old history sheeter for allegedly duping more than 200 people in eight states in the last one year.

The Faridabad police, late Wednesday night, arrested a 34-year-old history sheeter for allegedly duping more than 200 people in eight states in the last one year. The suspect, identified as Gaurav Chauhan of Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, allegedly duped people by offering them high returns on fake insurance policies after winning their confidence, the police said.

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Faridabad commissioner of police KK Rao said Chauhan used to cold call on numbers picked up from database providers in Delhi. He would allegedly introduce himself as an agent of the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). “He used to offer people fake insurance policies with high returns. People would fall for the offers and deposit money in the bank account numbers shared by him,” Rao said

Police probe into the scam reportedly began when a Faridabad resident, Rajan Sharma, lodged a police complaint last year stating that he was duped of ₹1.68 crore by an insurance agent who had offered him short-term insurance policies with high returns on minimum premium.

According to the police, the complainant realised that he had been duped when, on checking bank alerts on money transactions, he called the customer care number of the insurance company and was informed that he only had one life-term policy with them.

In his complaint, Sharma alleged that for the first time, the suspect couriered to him papers of an original insurance policy, and that thereafter he suspects the papers sent to him were those of fake policies as the suspect asked for the money to be transferred in different accounts. Police said that many of the cases Chauhan is being tried for have a similar modus operandi.

The complainant then approached the Faridabad police and a case was filed against unknown persons under sections 419 (impersonation) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and 66D (impersonation using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act at the Mujesar police station.

“The case was handed over to the economic offences wing and it took almost a year to identify Chauhan as the man behind the scam, which was being operated from his house in Ghaziabad. During questioning, Chauhan revealed that he was the kingpin of a gang of seven members. They used to make calls posing as insurance agents and had duped an estimated 200 people from different states in one year’s time,” Rao said.

Chauhan was earlier arrested in the states of Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar and Odisha, the Faridabad police said, adding that he was out on bail and is facing trial in more than 40 cases.

Inspector Madan Singh of the economic offences wing said that using forged documents Chauhan had bought numerous SIM cards and opened more than 50 bank accounts to make calls and dupe people. “We are conducting raids at suspected locations and have received details of all members of his gang. We have also seized the bank accounts. We are making a list of all assets he purchased in the past three years,” Singh said.

Chauhan has been remanded to four days in police custody for further investigation. A raid will be conducted at his residence for recovery of computer and data of victims who were duped, the police said.