Insurance companies cheated of Rs 2 crore with fake bills

NOIDA: The special task force of Lucknow police has busted a fake health insurance racket in Noida and arrested four members of the gang, including the kingpin, on charges of duping insurance companies of Rs 2 crore.

Police said the accused sourced data of insurance applicants from a firm as well as roped in “customers” and convinced them to buy health insurance policies, promising them a share of the ill-gotten money.

Subsequently, the gang would also prepare fake medical bills, in collusion with few hospitals and doctors in Noida and Hapur, to claim insurance from the companies. If the third party insurance firms came for verification, the policy holders would play along. And once sanctioned, the accused would open bank accounts “using forged documents” — again in collusion with some bank officials — to get the claim money deposited, the cops said. The accused — identified as Amit Tyagi, Ankur Tyagi, Harsh Mishra and Saurabh Bhandari — were picked up from a building in Noida’s Sector 21 on Tuesday.

As many as 18 debit cards, two voter ID cards, three PAN cards, four Aadhaar cards, 11 mobile phones, six SIM cards, one driving licence, one laptop, a printer, 96 stamps of different doctors, hospitals and pathological laboratories, four cheque books, 4,500 letter heads and seven forged hospital bills have been seized from the accused, cops said.

The activities of the gang first came to light when two major insurance firms lodged separate FIRs in Delhi and Noida against the accused duping them of claim amount. “They would buy the data of insurance applicants in NCR from a health insurance firm and contact them and later, show them as ill and forge bills on their names, which they would get cleared through some doctors and hospitals,” the STF said.

For medical bills of those hospitals who were not in direct link with them, the gang would allegedly use the services of an insurance investigator and a doctor of a private hospital who would help in the process of availing the claim. According to the STF, the accused had duped the insurance companies of nearly Rs 2 crore.

Source: The Times of India