Mumbai: Insurance scam using a/cs of the dead: Delhi duo held

Rahul Khanna and Varun Kumar Khanna

Fraudsters are using the bank accounts of deceased individuals to transfer money obtained through various cyber fraud schemes. The Bangur Nagar police have arrested the duo from Dehli who allegedly used this modus operandi.

The investigation began when the Bangur Nagar cyber cell was looking into an insurance fraud case. In this case, the scammers duped a 53-year-old film director of R90,000 by falsely claiming to renew his lapsed insurance policies. An FIR was registered in this regard under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Information Technology (IT) Act in February.

During the investigation under the guidance of DCP (Zone XI) Ajay Kumar Bansal, the police traced the account to which the defrauded amount was transferred. The account was registered in the name of Guru Charan Singh but was linked to a mobile number belonging to Rahul Khanna. Rahul was detained and questioned about the mobile number associated with Singh's account. He revealed that the number was being used by his brother, Varun Kumar Khanna.

Further investigation revealed that Varun had an Aadhar card and a voter ID card with the name Punit Malhotra, but the photos on these documents were of Varun. The police then visited the address listed on Malhotra's ID card and discovered that he had passed away a couple of years ago. They obtained Malhotra's death certificate from his relatives.

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The police also collected details from Guru Charan Singh's bank and found that someone else was living at his registered address. The woman living there told the cops that she heard that Singh had passed away. "We then contacted his relatives so we can obtain his death certificate." said an officer.

It did not take long for the police to understand that the brothers were using the bank accounts of deceased people to deposit the money obtained through fraud and the duo was arrested and brought to Mumbai. "We are interrogating them and are on the lookout for the leader of the gang," the officer added.