Gang mastermind held, used to get fake FIRs registered for insurance

The Delhi Police have arrested the mastermind of a gang who used to get fake FIRs registered to claim insurance money for the commercial vehicles he had already sold, police officials said on Thursday.

The accused was identified as Manoj Sharma, 41, a resident of Jhajjar in Haryana.

A police team was investigating a theft case of a commercial vehicle on a e-FIR registered on July 18 at the Paschim Vihar East police station on the complaint of Manoj Sharma.An official said the team further found that the complainant had registered four other e-FIRs for stolen commercial vehicles.

The team then checked the CCTV footage from the incident sites and verified other details, which raised suspicions about the legitimacy of Sharma’ claims. On August 31, Manoj Sharma was interrogated, during which he admitted to purchasing three JCB machines and two tractors all of which he had later sold.

The police then recovered a Farm Tac 60 tractor from Manglaur in Uttarakhand which had been reported stolen in an e-FIR dated February 1 at Vikaspuri.

Another tractor reported stolen on August 10, 2023, from Mundka, was recovered from Dankaur in Gautam Budh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh.

“On sustained interrogation, the accused revealed that he had sold his JCB machine to a person in Jammu and Kashmir and subsequently filed a fake e-FIR at Paschim Vihar East Police Station to claim insurance,” the police official added.

The police team then travelled to Jammu and Kashmir and successfully recovered the JCB machine from Kargil, Ladakh.

“During investigation, Sharma confessed that he was facing financial difficulties, which led him to commit these crimes. He intended to maintain a lavish lifestyle for himself and his family through the fraudulent claims,” the official said.