Pune: In a shocking case of corporate fraud, an insurance manager has been accused of embezzling ₹1,47,82,027 by tampering with life insurance policies of Non-Resident Indians (NRIs).
The manager, Manoj Jain, allegedly stole sensitive information from unclaimed policies, created fake bank accounts, changed registered mobile numbers, and redirected large sums of matured policy amounts to these fraudulent accounts. Investigators have hinted that the total amount of the fraud might increase as the investigation progresses.
The complaint was filed by Balram Kumar Patwa (32), a resident of Manpura Patwa Toli, Gaya, Bihar, at the Cyber Police Station. Manoj Jain, a resident of Birla Nagar, Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, has been named as the primary suspect in the case. According to the complaint, the fraudulent activities took place between March 26 and April 15.
The scam came to light when Kanhiya Chatlani approached Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance to inquire about the maturity amount of a policy taken out by his father in 2011. He was informed that ₹91,03,182 had been transferred to a Bank of India account located in Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh.
However, Chatlani denied having any bank account in Uttar Pradesh and claimed that he had not received the maturity amount.
Upon conducting an internal investigation, Bajaj Allianz discovered that someone had tampered with the policyholder’s information on the company's life insurance portal.
The mobile number associated with the policy had been changed, and the bank account details had been replaced with those of a fake account.
Further investigation revealed that Manoj Jain, a manager at the company, had logged into Chatlani’s policy 73 times between October 19, 2020, and the present, using the company’s laptop. His repeated access raised suspicions about his intentions and actions.
The investigation also uncovered that Jain had accessed the policies of three other NRI policyholders and fraudulently transferred their funds as well. All these policyholders were NRIs, and Jain had managed to steal a total of ₹1,47,82,027 from the company by manipulating these policies.
The company has now uncovered evidence of tampering with five more policies, which could further increase the amount involved in this fraud. As a result, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance has launched an extensive probe, and police are looking into the possibility of more fraudulent activities carried out by Jain.
