A Haryana businessman allegedly faked his own death so that his family could claim insurance, police said three days after they recovered a charred body from his car and were told by the family that he had been killed for Rs 11 lakh.
Police said they have found the businessman, Ram Mehar (35), alive in Chhattisgarh and and are now investigating to identify the person whose body was found in the burning car in Hansi Tuesday night.
Earlier, police had registered a case on the complaint from Ram Mehar's family.
Based on that complaint and the recovery of the badly charred body from the vehicle, the police had said some unidentified assailants allegedly burnt the businessman to death after looting Rs 11 lakh cash from him in Haryana's Hisar district.
The incident had triggered a strong reaction from opposition parties and the Congress had said there was a "jungle raj" in the BJP-ruled Haryana.
Hansi Superintendent of Police Lokender Singh told PTI Friday, "During the course of investigations, we got some vital clues on the basis of which we traced Ram Mehar to Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh on Friday. We are bringing him here".
"He fabricated his death detail and the loot incident," he said.
Asked if the person whose body was found from inside the burning car had been identified, Mr Singh said, "We are making further investigations. Once Mehar, who is now an accused, is brought back, he will be questioned intensely and more facts will emerge."
Asked as to why Ram Mehar could have taken such a step, Mr Singh said, "During our investigations so far, it has come to light that he had two insurances in his name and the sum assured in one was Rs 1 crore and Rs 50 lakh in another. His family would have got the amount in case of his death. This probably looks as the reason behind the whole incident".
To a question, he said it has also come to light that his business was not doing well and he could probably be under debt, but further investigations would shed more light on this.
Mr Singh said that he would not like to comment at this stage when asked if any family member was under scanner in the case or how the police got vital clues leading to the breakthrough.
He said police had earlier lodged a complaint based on the statement of the family.
"He had called up the family over phone saying some people were following his car and apprehended that they wanted to loot the amount he was carrying and may cause him harm.
"Police immediately swung into action and we found the burning car and a badly charred body. Later, we were investigating the case with a dacoity-cum-murder angle," he said.
On Tuesday evening, Ram Mehar, a resident of Data village on Bhatla-Data road in Hansi, was going home in his car.
Police had earlier said the attackers intercepted his car and then allegedly looted him and set the car on fire after locking him inside it.
Police quoting the family had said Ram Mehar owns a factory of disposable cups and plates in Barwala and was coming to Data village from Hisar after withdrawing Rs 11 lakh from a bank.
Australia Woman Arrested For Faking Own Death To Claim Nearly $500,000 Insurance Payout Maharashtra Lawmaker Seeks Action Against Poonam Pandey For Faking Death Man Kills Beggar To Fake His Death For Rs 80 Lakh Insurance, Arrested 17 Years Later Over 300 Indian Students Return As Quota Row Sparks Violence In Bangladesh "Jindal Group Executive Showed Porn, Groped Me On Flight": Woman To NDTV Full Recovery From Global IT Outage Could Take Time: 10 Points CrowdStrike: All About The Cybersecurity Giant Behind Global IT Outage UP Government Forms Lucknow-SCR On The Lines Of Delhi-NCR The Situation At Delhi, Mumbai Airports Day After Global IT Outage Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.