Thane woman cheated of Rs 26 lakh in insurance fraud

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A 58-year-old woman from Maharashtra's Thane district allegedly lost more than Rs 26 lakh after being lured to invest in an insurance scheme promising high returns, police said on Wednesday.

Based on a complaint filed by the woman on Tuesday, the Vithalwadi police registered a case against two persons under sections for cheating.

The woman, after retiring from a government job in 2020, went to a nationalised bank to invest money in a fixed deposit. A bank employee informed her about a "lucrative" private insurance scheme where after investing Rs 5 lakh for five years, she would get a return of Rs 38 lakh after 10 years, a police official said quoting the complaint.

The woman made the payment for two years, but later found the clause of getting Rs 38 lakh was missing from the scheme document, hence she decided to discontinue the policy.

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She contacted the insurance company where an official introduced her to a person who claimed to be from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA).

The person along with the other accused, under the pretext of helping the woman get back her money, allegedly asked her to make a number of payments between October 2021 and February 2022 which amounted to Rs 26,66,137, the official said.

When she did not get the money, she checked with the IRDA and was informed that no such person worked with them.

The woman then filed a police complaint, based on which a case was registered against the two accused, the police said, adding that no arrest has been made so far.