‘Oct 2’ date on insurance policy leads vehicle tribunal to discover forgery

Police registered an FIR against a Gurugram-based transporter and other suspects on the direction of the Motor Vehicle Act Tribunal (MVAT) in the city after it found that a forged insurance policy was placed before it to pass on the compensation claim burden to the insurance firm in a seven-year-old accidental death case.

According to the police, the policy was dated October 2 and it was the date that brought the fraud to the fore as no office work takes place on October 2, Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday.

On the directions of the court of additional district and sessions judge Phalit Sharma, the insurance firm manager submitted a complaint regarding the alleged forgery at the Shivaji Nagar police station on Monday, following which an FIR against the transporter and other suspects under sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (fraudulently or dishonestly using forged document) of the Indian Penal Code on Monday night, said police.

As per the FIR, one of the trucks owned by the transporter ran over a man in Gurugram on the night of October 5, 2016 and an FIR was registered at the Sector 18 police station the next day. The truck was registered in Gurugram.

The family of the deceased, Rakesh Kumar, moved the court to claim compensation after which the transporter submitted a vehicle insurance policy, issued from Dhanbad in Jharkhand, showing that it was insured from October 2, 2016 to October 1, 2017.

A senior police officer, privy to the case, said the date on which the policy was issued, was also shown as October 2, 2016, which raised the tribunal’s suspicion as it’s a national holiday and all government and quasi government offices as well as private ones remain closed that day.

“The manager also alleged in his FIR that his company office was closed on October 2, 2016, and thus no such policy was issued on that date. After inquiry, it was found that the policy actually was issued on October 18, 2016, following an inspection of the truck carried out a day before,” he said.

The officer said the tribunal ordered a police inquiry on April 16 this year and its report mentioned that the actual policy was valid from October 18, 2016, to October 17, 2017. This was changed so that the accident date is covered and absolve the transporter of having to pay the compensation.

Inspector Sunder Pal, station house officer of Shivaji Nagar police station, said police are investigating the case. “Further details will be know after the suspects are questioned,” he said.