BHUBANESWAR: A Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) agent who insured lives of dead people and raised Rs 1.81 crore insurance money in their names was arrested by Economic Offences Wing (EOW) here on Thursday, October 7, 2021. Kabiraj 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 register 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 registering these policies, Behera manufactured fake death certificates of the insured persons subsequent to their actual demise. He used the certificates to apply for death claims in favour of the nominees at the LIC office at Khurda. Suspicious over the settlement of fake claims, the authorised officer of LIC, Khurda branch, 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.
When the officials concerned sensed the illegal activity, they did not settle the claims of the remaining policies and approached the EOW. During searches at Behera’s house, incriminating documents like voter ID cards, Aadhaar and ATM cards, cheques and bank passbooks of nominees and correspondences made by the LIC were seized. Besides, some papers containing the purported full signatures of the ghost policyholders were also recovered. “The role of nominees of fake policies, and if any other LIC official was hand in glove with Behera is being investigated,” said Pankaj.