‘Dead’ man walks to cops, wife held for Rs 18 lakh insurance fraud

AHMEDABAD: A 45-year-old woman from the Kathwada area of the city forged her husband’s death certificate and obtained Rs 18 lakh insurance amount after dumping him three years ago saying that he is an unemployed man and he does not have any right to stay with him.

The woman Nanda Marathi and a doctor from the Satellite area of city, Harikrushna Soni, a resident of Sushmita Apartment on the Judges Bungalow Road in Satellite, were caught by the city crime branch for fraudulently obtaining the death certificate of the complainant, Nimesh Marathi, 48, a daily wager from the Saijpur Bogha area.

Police said that Nanda Marathi first approached another wanted accused in the case Ravindra Kodekar, a resident of Sardarnagar, who introduced her to the doctor.

She obtained a death report from the doctor which stated that Nimesh died of cardiac arrest on March 6, 2019. Nanda and Kodekar then obtained a death certificate from Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) and later in August 2019, she got insurance amount from the two private insurance firms, said a police officer.

In his FIR with the detection of crime branch (DCB) police, Nimesh said that he had bought two life insurance policies around 15 years ago and his wife Nanda was the nominee in both the policies.

“Around three years ago, after both of our daughters got married and settled at their houses in Ahmedabad city and Bhavnagar city, my wife told me to go to my native place in Burhanpur of Madhya Pradesh as I did not have any regular income,” said Nimesh before the cops.

Nimesh added that his wife told him that they were living in a rented house and it would be difficult for them to pay the rent as he was not earning money. “I accepted her proposal and went to Burhanpur whereas my wife went to my daughter’s place in Kathwada. When I returned around three months later, she did not allow me to enter the house and pushed me out of our place taunting me that I am an unemployed man,” he said before the cops.

Nimesh was living on a footpath and managed to make ends meet by begging or daily wages. Recently, he came to know that his wife got a big fortune by declaring him dead. He enquired into it and later approached police and filed a plea to take action against his wife and her accomplices.