4 suspects, agri dept officials booked for crop insurance fraud

Gurugram: Four suspects along with other unidentified officials of the Haryana agriculture department were booked for an alleged attempt to claim insurance against destroyed crops by forging documents, police said on Tuesday.

The suspects alleged that their crops were destroyed in Jamalpur village in Bilaspur and tried to claim insurance under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), when there has been no natural calamity in the village in the last four years, police added.

Investigators said that the matter came to light when a few agriculture department officials reached the village on September 7, and started surveying agricultural land owned by Vikram Singh. They said that villagers informed Singh about the survey over the phone and he reached the spot to know that compensation for crop damage on his land was claimed under the PMFBY.

Police said a woman from a nearby village, Ghosgarh, had allegedly submitted documents to the agriculture department, stating that she had taken the land on rent from Singh and had grown cotton, but it was damaged due to a natural calamity. Investigators said that Singh came to know that his signatures were forged to prepare fake rent documents and affidavit for claiming the insurance.

An FIR has been filed against four persons, including the woman, her husband, his father, a block technology manager and unidentified agriculture department officials, police said.