Man gets 4 years in jail and fine of Rs 25 lakh for duping insurance firm with false claim of fire

Three others, including officials of the National Insurance Company were cleared of all charges by the court which said that there was no evidence against them.

Daga was also cleared of other charges including criminal conspiracy.

“A contract of insurance is a contract of utmost good faith. The accused has committed the offence in a cold and calculated manner by misusing various agencies and misleading them and the surveyors. He has wrongfully enjoyed the amounts disbursed by the National Insurance Co. A reformative approach cannot be adopted. The offence is an economic offence. Such an offence has to be dealt with strictly and warrants a term of imprisonment and stiff fine. An amount of Rs.21,96,000/- was disbursed to accused No. 2 (Daga) towards the claim. He has enjoyed the wrongful gain and must be made to surrender his ill gotten gains,” special judge Amit V Kharkar said.

According to submissions made by special public prosecutor Sandeep Singh, a company named Pravin and Co, had bought a policy pertaining to standard fire and special perils for a sum of Rs 1 crore between 2010-2011.

The location of the company was in Kurla as per the details of the policy.

The accused, Daga, submitted an insurance claim for compensation for a fire which occurred on November 20, 2010. The location of this company where the fire took place, however, was in Navi Mumbai.

The CBI had alleged that three persons who were officers of the National Insurance Company, changed the address of the location from Kurla to Navi Mumbai, on a request made by Daga orally.

The CBI alleged that members of the Divisional Claims’ Committee had approved the insurance claim made by Daga, granting compensation of Rs 21.96 lakh, even as the surveyor appointed to assess the claim had said that the location was not covered in the said policy.

The CBI had registered a complaint based on information about a cheating case.

Its investigators examined the insurance claim documents and other evidence to find that the location where a fire had taken place belonged to another person, near Daga’s premises and that Daga had misled surveyors.

They were taken to the other person’s godown and were made to believe that it was the location for which Daga had taken the insurance for the claim.

During the trial, the CBI had presented evidence including records from the fire department which showed the actual owner’s calls to report the fire.

Daga had claimed innocence citing documents including records that he had paid for the charges for extinguishing the fire but the CBI had said that this claim did not match the records.