Man makes wife’s fake death certificate, 3 held

A Zirakpur resident, in connivance with two others, including a Solan Municipal Corporation employee, prepared a fake death certificate of his wife to fraudulently claim insurance money.

The case came to light when Bimla Verma, Registrar of Births and Deaths, Municipal Corporation Solan, lodged a complaint on February 7, stating that a death report for Monika Goyal, wife of Vishal Goyal, was received on Form No. 2 in the Birth and Death Branch. The names and mobile numbers of local residents Suresh Sharma and Gagan were listed as witnesses on the form, along with their signatures. Additionally, Dharampal, a Municipal Corporation employee, had signed the form and later submitted it in the Birth and Death Branch at the Municipal Corporation office, according to the complaint.

Based on this form, the death was officially registered on January 14, and the next day, an application was submitted by Vishal Goyal before the Registrar, to obtain a death certificate for Monika Goyal. On January 15, five copies of the death certificate were issued.

However, on February 1, an application was received in the civic body office from Monika Goyal herself, stating that someone had fraudulently issued her death certificate, falsely recording her last rites at Chambaghat crematorium. She demanded its cancellation, asserting that she was alive.

Following this, a case was registered by the Solan police on February 6 under the relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for cheating, forgery, using forged documents and criminal conspiracy, informed Solan SP Gaurav Singh.

During the investigation, the police examined the records of the Registrar’s office, where the death certificate was confirmed to be fake.

It was found that Vishal Goyal had lived with his wife in the Sunny Side area of Solan from 2014 to 2016. After the FIR was registered, he fled the city and switched off his phone to evade arrest.

On March 14, Goyal was arrested from Maya Garden, Zirakpur. Further investigation revealed that Monika Goyal had insurance policies worth Rs 85 lakh from ICICI Bank and Bajaj Finance, which motivated her husband to commit the fraud as he was in dire need of money.