Panchkula man duped of ₹31.35 lakh on pretext of receiving life insurance scheme refund

Two men and their agents have been booked for allegedly duping a 49-year-old man of ₹31.35 lakh on the pretext of refunding money related to a life insurance scheme by misrepresenting themselves.

Complainant Ravindra Rote, a resident of Sector 20, Panchkula, told police that he has been working as the vice-president with Vi-John Company since 2011 and it was in June 2013 when he received a call from a person who introduced himself as an employee of Reliance Life Insurance Company Limited, Delhi.

The complainant told the police that the policy taken by him had a premium plan of one year, however, after receiving the related documents, it was learnt that the premium was to be paid for five years. Rote called the representative concerned, raising his objection to pay the premium amount.

The man demanded two cheques of ₹25,000 each in order to receive back the refund money along with the cheque amount. Following this, the complainant again received two policies in which the cheques given by him to the said agent were used.

Later, another person collected a cheque of ₹80,000 from his wife following which he again received another policy of ₹40,000 in the name of Reliance Life Insurance Company Limited.

APPROACHED GRIEVANCE MANAGEMENT CELL IN 2014

When Rote made a complaint to Integrated Grievance Management System (IGMS) complaint cell in May 2014, he started receiving calls from persons representing themselves as officers and members of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), Reserve Bank of India (RBI), insurance complaint cell and the Union ministry of finance. “The persons asked me to deposit money on the pretext of PFT account clearance, TFA account, TFC code, income tax payment and TDS rebating code. “I deposited over ₹17 lakh in the account of Cache Enterprises Private Limited and one other company’s account through different transactions,” stated the complainant.

When he tried to search the whereabouts of the companies, he came to know about their directors -- Abhishek Jain and Rajrishi Guha. He tried to contacted them but all in vain. The complainant also deposited another ₹6 lakh in different accounts.

“After depositing ₹23.70 lakh in total, when I called on the respective numbers, they were switched off. I felt suspicious and tried a lot to contact these persons but all in vain,” Rote said, adding that later through a news report in 2015, he came to know that the company was fake.

Investigating official sub-inspector (SI) Dhoom Singh said, “Later, the complainant met one of the accused, Rajrishi Guha, for settlement and he gave him seven cheques of ₹6.13 lakh that bounced. “Later, he again received calls from a representative who told him that he would get his amount recovered. Also, many other persons called him from different companies for settlement and asked him to deposit different amounts,” the SI said.

FORGED DOCUMENTS

Police said the complainant also received several forged documents and letters including those issued in the name of the ministry of finance, RBI and the Governing Body of Insurance Council (GBIC) from e-mails. “The complainant also deposited more amounts, taking the total amount to ₹31.35 lakh. Later, he stopped responding to mails, calls and did not deposit any amount after finding that he has been defrauded. Based on initial probe, we have initiated further investigation into the matter,” the SI said.

A case has been registered against Abhishek Jain, Rajrishi Guha and their agents under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code.