6 people arrested for Rs. 80 lakh insurance fraud :

The Kalyan crime branch unit of Thane police arrested six people, including two Mumbai based doctors and a Thane civic-run crematorium employee, for allegedly preparing death certificates of people who were alive and claiming insurance,

The police said the mastermind, Kalyan resident Chandrakant Shinde (65), in connivance with Tejpal Mahrol, a sweeper at Thane Municipal Corporation’s(TMC) Mumbra crematorium, and Dr. Abdul Siddiqui (38) and Dr. Imran Siddiqui (41) who issued at least 10 bogus death certificates claimed compensation of Rs.80 lakhs from two private insurance firms. They also managed to procure death certificates from the TMC of three people who live in Andhra Pradesh and sought Rs. 50 lakhs as payout, said the police. The others arrested were Chandrakant’s son Narayan and daughter-in-law Laxmi, who were the beneficiaries.

The police said other beneficiaries were Chandrakant’s relatives who were unaware about the insurance money claimed on their names as most of them are illiterate. Investigators are also probing the role of the insurance company officials and TMC employees.

The police said Chandrakant, who used to sell cutlery items in a local trains started the scam in 2015 and roped in hMerol. Explaining the modus operandi, the police said Mehrol would fill TMC forms required to get a death certificate. He would give Dr. Abdul and Dr. Imran Rs. 2,000–Rs. 10,000 to give a fake doctor’s certificate showing the cause of death as “natural”. Using the fake doctor’s death certificate, Mehrol would then get a death certificate from the civic health department and hand it over to Chandrakant, who would claim the money from the insurance company. Chandrakant had also claimed Rs. 12.9 lakh by submitting a “death certificate” of his dauther-in-law Laxmi. Narayan was the nominee in her policy, said the police.

The racket came to light when Thane resident Venkat Shinde, who is Chandrakant’s nephew, checked his life insurance policy document and found his death certificate instead. He immediately called up the insurance firm and was shocked to learn that Rs. 4.8 lakh payout had already been given. He then approached the Kalyan crime branch unit. Senior inspector Sanju John formed a team under assistant police inspector Santhosh Shevale, who questioned Chandrakant as he had bought the policy for Venkat. John said. Chandrakant confessed to the crime and spilled the beans on Mehrol and the doctors.

Go Digit Insurance launched pet insurance scheme :

Go Digit Insurance, has launched a pet insurance product in the Indian market in partnership with Vetina, a US-based company.

With this launch, Digit is among a select group of private insurers offering pet insurance in the country.

Goyal said that “Vetina’s Pawtect Plan, powered by Digit Insurance is how being offered as insurance of pet dogs.

The product offers three different plans divided under categories – Silver, Gold and Platinum – that covers major illness, accidental injury cover, third party liability cover (any bodily injury or damage to third party property) depending on the plan one chooses to buy.

We have started only with dogs. OuRresearch show that in India cats are not that popular. Over a period of time we will start offering cover for cats also, he said.

IRDAI cancels E-Meditek’s TPA licence :

IRDAI has cancelled the certificate of registration of E-Meditek insurance TPA and further directed that the company will no longer be allowed to do business as a Third Party Administrator (TPA). This is first of its kind incident wherein a TPA has been asked to stop operations because of several violations which the regulator found detrimental to the interests of policyholders and insurers.

The regulator has asked E-Meditek to continue servicing the existing health insurance policies based on the discretion and direction of the respective insurers for a period not exceeding three month’s from the date of the order (10th Jan 2019)