4 persons posing as insurance firm agents arrested

A group of four who have been cheating people for the past six months by posing as insurance company agents was arrested on Wednesday.

The accused have been identified as Shalini, 24, a resident of Parappana Agrahara, Mary, 28, Sunil, 22, and Lokesh, 23, both residents of JP Nagar.  Shalini, a BCom graduate who had worked with a private insurance company, was the head of the gang. Having gained knowledge of the procedure in insurance companies, she joined the other three.

The gang was approaching people, whose car insurance had lapsed, and produced fake identity cards of different companies and duped the victims into paying the money.

An ex-official of Tata-AIG General Insurance helped the insurance firm nab the culprits.

When given a draft or cheque, the group insisted the victims to pay by cash citing it as the convenient way to reactivate their insurance.

The group also offered its victims concession of up to Rs2,000 and collected an amount of Rs9,000-Rs10,000.  After collecting money, the group used to change the mobile phone number given to victims.

The group claimed itself to be belonging to a firm called Micro Allowance Insurance in Koodlu Gate. The accused told people that the firm that they were the corporate agents of the insurance company.

Police recovered more than 80 fake ID cards from the gang. The four accused cheated people in the names of Tata-AIG General Insurance, ICICI Lombard, and Reliance General Insurance.

The group had the list of people whose insurance policy had lapsed. Police suspect that insiders in the insurance companies might be involved in the case.

“We suspect some more people are involved with the gang. We will come to know about it after proper interrogation,” said Alok Kumar, joint commissioner of police (crime).