Senior LIC official cheats over 300 policyholders, pockets half crore
LIC Headquarters
Police have registered a criminal complaint against a senior official from the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) for allegedly cheating 338 policy holders of Rs 54 lakh. The official reportedly hacked into LIC Kalyan branch’s computer system to orchestrate the fraud.
The accused, Shaileja Oval, has been suspended from the job and currently absconding.
Oval was employed as an administrative officer at branch 934 of Kalyan (West) and responsible for settling dues of matured policies.
While being employed with the LIC, Oval came across several policies which had matured, but the beneficiaries had not claimed the amount due to some or the other reason.
The Scam
According to reports, Oval gained access to the LIC’s policy database around July and changed the names of the policyholder to someone known to her. She then transferred the amount to the actual beneficiary of the policy. This was done for at least 38 policies.
However, as soon as the beneficiary would receive the amount, she would contact them and tell them that the money was wrongly credited to their amount.
By claiming that the money was actually sent by her relative, she would ask the beneficiary to wire the amount to her bank account.
Once the amount was wired to her account, she would go back to the database and change the name of the policyholder to the original one.
As a result, LIC records showed that the money was transferred to the beneficiary as required. But, the beneficiaries never got paid.
The Revelation
Oval’s scam came to light when an LIC agent’s client’s policy matured. While the records showed that the amount had been paid by the company two months back, the beneficiary never received the amount.
After the agent informed the company about the anomaly, LIC’s vigilance department started investigating the matter.
When Oval’s modus operandi became clear, senior divisional manager Punit Kumar lodged a criminal case at Mahatma Phule police station.
