Dead man walking! Youth fights to prove he’s alive amid Rs 1.4-cr insurance con

In an unprecedented series of events with all the ingredients of a Bollywood potboiler, 19-year-old Vishal of Nava Purba village received the shock of his life when he discovered his own death certificate, issued by the Chief Registrar of Births & Deaths, Punjab.

The shock deepened when he also got a report from a religious organisation in Tarn Taran certifying the immersion of his ashes, along with an affidavit from a woman claiming to be his wife, declaring him deceased.

Since then, Vishal has been moving from pillar to post to prove that he is alive. He has filed a police complaint, submitted copies of the forged death certificate, the imposter wife’s affidavit and a false insurance claim made in his name, leaving him feeling like a “dead man walking”.

The matter first came to light when an insurance agent contacted the sarpanch of Vishal’s previous village, Kot Karor Kalan in Moga district, to verify an insurance claim. The sarpanch then asked Vishal’s uncle about his death, who in turn informed Vishal. Disturbed by this, Vishal discovered that an imposter, posing as his wife, had declared him dead and submitted documents for an insurance claim, citing heart failure as the cause.

“I used to live in Kot Karor Kalan, but for the last six months, I’ve been staying at Nava Purba village,” said Vishal, adding that a woman from his neighbourhood had promised to help him secure a loan at attractive interest rates from a private bank. According to him, he provided all his documents and even accompanied her to a bank in the city for KYC verification. However, the loan never materialised, he said.

“When the sarpanch called my uncle, I learned about the fraud,” Vishal said.

He later obtained copies of the death certificate issued by the Primary Health Centre in Daroli Kalan, Moga, an ashes immersion slip from Baba Kundan Singh Dham in Harike and a self-declaration affidavit from a woman, named Sanjana, who claimed to be his wife. He also found that the photo on his Aadhaar card had been tampered with.

“I also learned that several insurance policies, totalling around Rs 1.43 crore had been taken out in my name with HDFC Life Insurance Company and premiums had been paid,” he said, adding that the entire conspiracy appeared to have been hatched to claim the insurance money using his documents.

When contacted, SSP Bhupinder Singh said the police had received a complaint from Vishal and conducted a preliminary investigation. The names of three accused have surfaced — Sukhdev Singh, Sanjana (daughter of Boota Singh from Kunde village) and Sahil Khanna. The SSP said the police were in the process of filing an FIR against them and further investigations would be conducted to determine the involvement of any other persons.