The Bangalore city police have busted a Rs. 1.4-crore Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) policy scam with the arrest of four persons, including an LIC agent.
The main accused, Trilok Kantilal Parikh (60), had obtained LIC policies for his wife and daughter, among others, and claimed the insured amount by producing fake death certificates.
So far, the police estimate that Parikh and his associates, including wife Vandana T. Parikh (58) and daughter Jasmine T. Parikh (35), had claimed at least Rs. 1.4 crore through falsification of identities and documents.
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According to the police, the modus operandi adopted by Parikh was to obtain LIC policies under various names and wait for around five years before producing fake death certificates to claim the insured amount.
In one such case, the police said, Parikh had obtained a policy for himself in the name of one Ayyappa by falsifying his identity proof and address proof. Later, he produced a fake death certificate and claimed Rs. 14 lakh from LIC.
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Parikh used to create the fake documents with the help of Syed Yousuf, who is yet to be arrested, and get the LIC policies through Kushal Kumar Katharia (50), an LIC agent who is also a member of the LIC Chairman’s Club.
It was Parikh’s friend Jagadish Chowdary who first alerted the LIC officials about the scam after chancing upon photographs and death certificates of his friend when he visited Katharia’s office in Malleswaram recently.
After the LIC officials carried out a verification process, they stumbled upon at least seven such recent policies on which Parikh had claimed the insured amount by producing fake death certificates.
A case was registered at the Malleswaram police station based on a complaint filed by the officials.
Similarly, police said, Parikh had claimed insurance totalling Rs. 42.5 lakh after creating policies in various names by using Jasmine’s photo identity and other documents. He had obtained two LIC policies in his daughter’s name for which his wife was the nominee. His wife received the insured amount after submitting Jasmine’s fake death certificate.
Parikh had also obtained policies in the name of his son Deevesh, besides friends Vimala Jain and Mr. Chowdary, without their (friends) knowledge.
More losses prevented
City Police Commissioner B.G. Jyothi Prakash Mirji said that further loss of Rs. 2.5 crore had been prevented as they had stumbled upon 14 such fake policies during their investigation.
Police said that Parikh had many cases registered against him, including for burglary, assault and robbery in the City Market, Chickpet, Ulsoor Gate, Peenya, Yeshwanthpur and Hebbagodi police stations since 1987.
Mr. Mirji also said that Parikh was arrested under the TADA Act by the Paharganj police in New Delhi in 1994; he was released in 1999.