Coordinated effort pull off Rs. 2 crore death insurance fraud

A debt-burdened man from Ahmednagar, his friend and his aunt, a police constable, a chartered accountant, a doctor and a lawyer conspired to pull off a Rs 2-crore insurance fraud by faking the death of the mastermind, stated the chargesheet recently submitted by Shivaji Park police in court.

The 550-page chargesheet named main accused Dinesh Taksale, his friend Anil Latke, Latke’s aunt Zunzarbai Wagmode, and government medical health officer Vishal Kevare for cheating, forgery, breach of trust and criminal conspiracy. Constable Kailash Deshmukh and others have been shown as absconding accused.

In 2015, Taksale took an Rs 2-crore life insurance policy from LIC and paid premium till December 2016. While buying the policy, he submitted forged documents,which were processed by a lawyer and signed by a CA.

The suspects waited a year-and-a-half before they struck, when they found the mutilated body of a man who died in a road accident. His body was taken to a hospital for post-mortem. Medical officer Dr Sunil Belote told police Deshmukh brought the body and said it was that of Taksale’s. Dr Belote said they then went to Dr Kevare’s office where a woman – later identified as Wahmode – claimed she was Taksale’s mother, and that her son was mentally challenged so they did not make any IDs for him.

LIC, however, felt something amiss when Wagmode came to claim the insurance amount, and alerted police.