Gang Loots Insurance Money By Misusing Aadhaar, Opening Fake Accounts

Delhi Police have arrested five people, including two former employees of a leading insurance firm, for allegedly cheating 22 policy holders and withdrawing Rs 2.38 crore that remained with the insurer unclaimed either as surrendered amount or after maturity, officials said on Wednesday.

A senior police official said one of the accused, Rohit Kumar Aggarwal (28), who worked with Max Life Insurance as a senior executive, had access to the company data. Aggarwal used to identify the policy holders whose surrendered and maturity amount remained unclaimed with the company for an unusually long time.

He would give the details of the target policy holders to Sujeet Kumar Mishra (41), who too was an employee of the insurance firm. Mishra would pass on the information to Chandan Jain (41), who would give the details to Prem Parkash (37) to open new bank accounts in the name of these policy holders. Vikas (30), the fifth accused, worked at an Aadhaar Centre and he helped the gang in updating Aadhaar details in the new bank accounts.

Officials said the case has exposed the vulnerability of the process of updating personal details at Aadhaar centres for misuse.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Operations) Prashant Gautam said Prakash would lure poor people, mostly those from slum clusters near Rana Pratap Bagh, and take them to an Aadhaar centre to get their names and addresses changed to the names and addresses of the policy holders.

"Vikas, who worked at the Aadhaar centre at SBI, Gujranwala Town, got these changes updated without taking any relevant documents after taking Rs 1,000-1,500 per case. Thereafter, these people applied for PAN cards and voter cards on the basis of the updated Aadhaar. After getting PAN and voter cards, their bank accounts were opened. Many of these accounts were opened digitally using e-Aadhaar authentication process," Mr Gautam said.

He said Prakash would give cheque or passbooks of the bank accounts displaying the names of the policy holders to Jain, who passed on these documents to Aggarwal through Mishra.

Aggarwal, who at the time was an employee of the insurance firm, would process the documentation and send them from his official email Id to the data entry team to initiate the refund process.

The refund was received in the new bank accounts opened by Prakash and his associates, the DCP said.

Most of the amount was then transferred to the bank accounts opened in the name of Rinku Sales, whose proprietor was Prakash, having the address of Kabir Nagar, Rana Pratap Bagh, Delhi. From these bank accounts, the accused would withdraw the amount, the official said.

"The bank accounts of Rinku Sales were operated by Jain from whose possession, the SIM card linked with the account number, debit cards and cheque books have been recovered," Mr Gautam said.

Police said they exposed the whole operation by the five men after receiving a complaint by Max Life Insurance Corporation, which alleged nearly Rs 51 lakh related to surrendered and maturity amount of two of its policy holders had been fraudulently received by unknown persons. The company later found that one of its policy holders had died on March 13, 2018, and no request for withdrawal of money was made on his behalf.

After examining the documents and information shared by the company and it was revealed that nearly Rs 2.38 crore — from 37 policies of 22 policy holders — was refunded fraudulently, police said.

Mr Gautam said the accused opened accounts in several banks in the name of policy holders. Many of these accounts were opened digitally using the e-Aadhaar authentication process, the official added.

The DCP said they first arrested Prem Prakash.

Police first tried to locate the address of Rinku Sales but could not find it at the given Kabir Nagar address. "Then, the team conducted comprehensive analysis and finally managed to identify the address of Prem Prakash at Chandan Vihar, Sant Nagar, Burari from where he was apprehended," Mr Gautam said.

Subsequently, the remaining accused were arrested, he added.

In a statement, Max Life Insurance said it discovered the fraud during an internal enquiry and has terminated the employments of the implicated individuals with immediate effect. The company is extending support to aid the ongoing investigation to ensure justice is met, it added.

"We believe in conducting business with the highest standards of ethics and integrity. We have zero tolerance for any unethical and fraudulent practices that compromise our customers' interest and put Max Life's reputation at risk," the company said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)