SIT to probe ‘fake accident for insurance claim’ racket

Sunit Dhawan
Tribune News Service
Rohtak, April 24

A Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by a DIG-level officer, has been constituted to probe the “fake accident for insurance claim” racket operating in several districts of the state. The matter is being investigated by the Special Task Force (STF) and State Crime Branch of Haryana Police.

DGP (Crime) PK Agrawal said an SIT led by STF in-charge DIG Satheesh Balan had been formed to get to the bottom of the matter.

As per official sources, a gang of fraudsters used to contact the families of poor cancer patients with offers of insurance cover. They even used to pay the insurance premiums themselves. 

After the death of the patient, they used to stage an accident and lodge an FIR, claiming that the person had died in a road mishap or due to electrocution. They would get the insurance claim and give a part of it to the family of the deceased, pocketing a good amount themselves. 

Most such cases were from Sonepat, Rohtak, Jhajjar and Hisar. 

Sources said the gang used to bribe police officials, doctors conducting the post-mortem examination, insurance-surveyors and medical record-keepers for their “services”. 

The medical record-keepers were roped in to destroy the records of the deceased patients so it could not be established that they had been suffering from cancer.

“More than 50 such cases have come to our knowledge so far. We have arrested three members of the gang of fraudsters, including kingpin Pawan Bhoria of Sewli village in Sonepat, his accomplices Mohit and Vikas, besides Pradeep, a computer operator at Sonepat Civil Hospital and Pramod, an employee at the Rohtak PGIMS,” said DSP (STF) Rahul Dev.