BHUBANESWAR: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch arrested Kabiraj Behera, a LIC agent, for allegedly raising Rs 1.81 crore insured amount in the names of ghost policyholders.
Behera, a native of Jhadakata under Kanas police limits in Puri district, has been working as a LIC agent since 2003. The accused had reportedly managed to issue 23 policies in the names of four dead persons between 2013 and 2019 by claiming that they were alive.
After three to five years of taking these policies, Behera manufactured fake death certificates of the insured persons subsequent to their actual demise.
The accused presented the fake death certificates as genuine and applied for death claims in favour of the nominees at LIC's branch office in Khurda.
On suspicion of settlement of fake claims, Khurda branch LIC's authorised officer lodged a complaint in this regard with EOW. The agency then registered a case on Wednesday under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, and 120B of IPC.
"It has been ascertained that the insurance policies were taken subsequent to the actual death of insured persons but the premium was being paid regularly. Intentionally, in all the policies the sum assured was kept less than Rs 10 lakh as the branch manager has the financial power to settle death benefits up to this amount without referring to the divisional office," EOW SP Jai Narayan Pankaj told The New Indian Express.
The EOW officers have established that the total amount of claims raised through 23 policies was more than Rs 1.81 crore. LIC officials had released payments against five policies. Later, the officials sensed the illegal activity, did not settle the claims of the remaining policies, and approached the agency in this regard.
During searches at Behera's house, many incriminating documents like voter identity cards, Aadhaar cards and ATM cards, cheques and bank passbooks of nominees, and correspondences made by the LIC were seized.
Besides this, some papers containing the purported full signatures of the ghost policyholders were also recovered from the accused.
"The role of nominees of fake policies, and if any other LIC official was hand in glove with Behera is being investigated. Further, it is under verification whether the accused has received financial benefits through other fake policies," said Pankaj.