Insurance fraud exposed; four of family arrested in Prayagraj

Police, on Friday, busted a gang that purchased insurance policies on fake documents and later claimed the insurance amount.

A joint team of Civil Lines Police, SOG and Surveillance Cell arrested four members of the gang on a tip off. They all belong to the same family.

A day earlier, Rahul Banerjee, chief manager of a private insurance company in Civil Lines, had lodged an FIR against seven accused of the gang at Civil Lines police station.

According to police, Banerjee had complained about a gang which was active in Karchhana tehsil of the district. As per his complaint, two life insurance policies were taken in the year 2023 and 2024 in the name of Khushboo Vishwakarma, wife of Ajay Kumar Vishwakarma, resident Karchhana, and Ajit Kumar Vishwakarma, brother of Ajay Kumar Vishwakarma, through sales manager Ankush Kumar Srivastava.

On June 28, 2024, Ajay Vishwakarma had made a claim about the death of both the policy holders Khushboo and Ajit. Investigation revealed that instead of his wife Khushboo’s photograph, Ajay had submitted the photo and forged documents of one of his relatives Satya Devi, wife of Mukesh, a resident of Karchhana.

Ajay’s wife Khushboo had died four years back while his brother Ajit had also expired before purchase of the policy.

On the complaint of Rahul Banerjee, a named FIR was registered against Ajay Kumar Vishwakarma, Ankush Kumar Srivastava, Vijay Upadhyay, Rakesh Pandey, Vijay Vishwakarma, Satya Devi and Neelam Vishwakarma. The police team arrested gang members Ajay Kumar Vishwakarma, Vijay Kumar Vishwakarma, Sujit Vishwakarma and Rajkumar Vishwakarma, all residents of Karchhana, on Friday.

According to police, all four accused belonged to the same family. The accused Ajay had taken the insurance policy fraudulently by showing his brother Ajit and his wife Khushboo as alive and putting photograph of another woman in Khushboo’s place.

Similarly, earlier this year, an insurance policy was taken by the accused by replacing photograph of his deceased brother with another person. Ajay was the nominee in both the insurance policies.