The court found doctors and police involved in cases of fake accidents to claim compensation. As many as 16 such cases have come up before it in the past one month.
With 16 false motor vehicle accident claims in the past one month, the high court has observed that there was racket behind the cases seeking huge sums as compensation for fake accidents.
While natural deaths are sometimes shown as occurring due to accidents in order to claim compensation, exorbitant compensation is sometimes sought for injuries that are non-scheduled (non-serious under law).
The false claims are submitted because doctors and advocates representing insurance companies offer false certificates to enable the claims.
In the past one month, the high court has seen 10 false compensation cases in connection with death of accident victims.
There were six false cases where doctors recommended huge sums in compensation even when the injuries did not warrant such amount. Police are sometimes involved and claim some share of the compensation made available.
“If a person has injured leg in a motor vehicle accident, it could be shown with a doctor’s certificate that what he suffered was a serious internal injury. This often happens after the victim has sought compensation from the accident’s tribunal. Being denied compensation by the tribunal, the plan is often to file an appeal in the high court, challenging the tribunal’s order. The victim only has to approach a doctor to prepare a false certificate,” said an advocate, on condition of anonymity.
Sources in the high court said that they found one doctor who had prepared false certificates in as many as five cases. The cases had come from districts like Hubli, Dharwad and others. The same doctor had given false certificates, for cases in different districts. The high court pointed out the discrepancy, and remarked about the number of false certificates being issued by doctors to support motor accident compensation claims.
Another category of cases are the occasions when the victim dies in an accident. In such cases, lawyers and police are involved in filing false reports. They could then claim a cut on the compensation sum offered to the next of kin of the victim.
What could also happen in such instances is that with the post-mortem report unattainable, the next of kin of victims would be unable to make a case establishing that the death was indeed caused by accident. Even if the victim’s relatives file a complaint, they are forced to go home empty-handed, denied compensation.
Taking serious note of the large number of false claims being filed for compensation to accident victims, the high court recently referred one case to the Criminal Investigation Department.
In another case, the high court instructed the director-general of police to instruct his men to investigate accident cases under the purview of the Motor Vehicles Act.
The court also issued instructions to the health and family welfare department, directing that doctors be prevented from becoming tools in the hands of unscrupulous elements seeking large sums as compensation by producing false medical certificates.
The court after noticing discrepancies in several cases where exorbitant compensation was awarded for injuries that were non-scheduled (not serious), on the recommendation of doctors and advocates who represent insurance firms, said that insurance companies were not doing enough to compensate victims or their kin. “A big racket is going on,” the court observed.
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