Cops bust vehicle insurance racket, hunt on for kingpin
CHENNAI: The cybercrime wing of the Greater Chennai Police busted a fake vehicle insurance racket and arrested six persons who misused the loopholes in technology to cheat people.
The accused misused the facility offered by government and private insurance firms wherein customers could buy two-wheeler and private car policies by applying either on their website or through online marketplaces.
“They would enter commercial vehicle’s registration number, but describe it as two-wheeler in the column for ‘type of the vehicle’,” said an official.
The gang wooed customers by charging only about Rs 16,000 as annual premium, a steep discount from the actual premium that ranges between Rs 20,000 and Rs 40,000 for commercial vehicles. “They would have paid only about Rs 1,000 for the two-wheeler, and thus made about Rs 15,000 for each policy,” the official said.
The fraud came to light after United India Insurance came across fake policies and approached Commissioner Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal.
The cybercrime wing of the Central Crime Branch (CCB) registered a case and the accused were traced to
Tirunvelveli and secured. The police seized gold jewels weighing about 1.06 kg, several property documents, Rs 9.5 lakh in cash, a car, phones and laptops.
The main accused was identified as Mariappan (40), a BCom graduate who worked with insurance firms till 2016 before starting an office in
Tirunelveli. His employee, M Sumathi (29), forged the policies, and Anand Senthurapandi (40) worked as his agent. Mariappan got his customers through Senthil Kumar Sengamalam (47), a registered insurance agent, and his subordinates Ansar Ali (43) and Jain Alavudin (40) of Pudukkottai.
The gang admitted to have cheated about 300 persons in four years, but the police suspect that the number could be much more and that names of other insurance firms could have also been misused.
Speaking to the media, Commissioner Aggarwal said their victims would not be able to claim their rightful compensation as the policy is fake. “People who obtain policies through agents should verify whether their policies are original through the link provided by the firms. The companies have been asked to address the loopholes,” he added.
Another official said the firms should link their policies with the government’s Parivahan database to detect such frauds.
The arrested accused have been remanded in judicial custody, while a hunt has been launched for a few more suspects, including the mastermind behind the racket.