BENGALURU: A senior civil judge at the court of Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Malavalli in Mandya district, has directed the state police chief to take action against police officials in two different cases for registering fake accident complaints to make false insurance claims.
In a shocking finding, the court learnt that there has been a trend in which “accidents” are being created to claim insurance, that too with the collusion of police officials and agents of insurance companies who take commissions after the claims are honoured.
Justice KM Radhakrishna has dismissed both the cases and directed that action to be taken against police officials involved.
In the first case, in 2017, a petition was filed by L K Venkatesh, resident of Lingapatna in Halagur Hobli of Malavalli taluk, under Section 166 of the Motor Vehicles Act to claim compensation of Rs 15.75 lakh in respect of accidental insurance.
It was found that although Venkatesh damaged his two-wheeler in an accident that did not involve any other motorists, he produced one Mahesh from Kanakapura -- also involved in the scam -- as implicated in the accident, projected as a head-on collision though it was a “self-accident” by Venkatesh.
Although Venkatesh did not have vehicle insurance, he and officials, used Mahesh’s documents to claim insurance.
It was only when the court queried how Mahesh’s two-wheeler did not have any damages that the truth emerged.
“As per the chargesheet, Govindaraju, the then Sub Inspector of Halagur Police Station, presently working as Inspector in the office of the DGP, Bengaluru, had registered the crime against the rider of the offending vehicle and partly investigated the case.
CR Ramesh, the Assistant Sub Inspector, of the same station completed further investigations and submitted the charge sheet to the Court. These officers shall be held responsible for creation of the fake accident,” the judge said.
In the second incident, the judge dismissed the petition filed by Nataraju, hailing from Maragowda-nahalli of Malavalli taluk, who had filed a petition seeking compensation of Rs 20 lakh in respect of an accident in June 2017.
In this the case, the Investigation Officer, S Nagesh, the then Sub-Inspector of the Kirugavalu Police Station and now working at the District Crime Branch, allegedly implicated an unrelated vehicle in a hit-and-run case to claim insurance although Nataraju did not have vehicle insurance.
Justice Radhakrishna noted that such practices were giving birth to innumerable false claims and the same was “more dangerous than the acts of anti-social elements.”