Bhubaneswar: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Crime Branch of Odisha police has arrested Kabiraj Behera, a LIC agent, for allegedly swindling death claims to the tune of over Rs 1.81 crore in the name of dead beneficiaries.
In conspiracy with nominees of deceased persons, Behera, who has been working as LIC agent since 2003, has fraudulently managed to avail the money from the LIC Branch Office, Khordha, said Jai Narayan Pankaj, Deputy Inspector General of Special Task Force, on Thursday.
The accused would be sent to the court of Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate, Khordha, on Thursday.
“The insurance agent had been smartly operating in such a way that nobody would have any doubt on him. Our investigators went after him, checked all documents and visited the addresses of the dead persons,” said Pankaj.
During the year 2013 to 2019, the accused had fraudulently managed to get/ take 23 numbers of LIC policies in the names of four dead persons, falsely showing them as alive. After about 3 to 5 years of taking those policies, Behera contrived to manufacture fake death certificates in the names of insured persons, the EOW said in a press statement.
By using those fake death certificates as genuine, the accused LIC agent applied for death claims in favour of the nominees in the LIC office and attempted to avail the financial benefits/death claims against those 23 policies.
The police said that the insurance policies were taken subsequent to the actual death of insured persons but the premium was being paid regularly.
Knowingly, in all the policies the sum assured were kept less than Rs 10 lakh, which comes well within the financial power to settle the death benefits by the branch manager, without referring to the divisional office of LIC, it said.
The roles of nominees / applicants of the 23 policies and the LIC officials, if any, are under investigation, the EOW said.
