Two former bankers held for duping insurance policy holders

Fake IDs, documents and gift of gab worked in favour of the accused

Two former employees of a multinational bank have been arrested for cheating insurance policy holders on the pretext of reviving their  accounts, which were inactive due to non-payment of instalments, police said on Thursday.

Ravi Kumar, 21, a resident of Karawal Nagar and Vinish Kumar, of Panchsheel Enclave, 27, used to get cheques filled with ‘magic pen’ and later erase the ink to fill in a higher amount, said Chhaya Sharma, deputy commissioner of police (south).

“They were stealing data of Kotak Mahindra Bank and duped over 50 people to the tune of more than Rs 15 lakh, which they spent on gambling,” Sharma said. The action was taken over a complaint by Mahabir Singh, she added.

Mahabir, a resident of Chandan Hulla, told police that his Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance policy was closed due to non-payment of instalments. Ravi met him on December 7, 2011, saying he was an authorised executive of the bank.

He offered to help Mahabir revive his policy account by paying a lesser amount than the due amount.

Mahabir, being convinced on the basis of Ravi’s IDs, documents and knowledge, handed over three signed cheques for Rs 45,000, Rs 3,000 and a cancelled cheque for account verification.  “Ravi impressed Mahabir with his talk and filled required documents and details in the cheques with his own pen. However, the customer signed cheques with his pen,” Sharma said.

The accused remained in contact with Mahabir for four days and then went underground. His mobile phone was also switched off.

“When the suspicious complainant checked his bank balance, he found that two cheques were debited from his account and credited in the accounts of Ravi Kumar and Vinish Kumar,” Sharma said.

During investigation, all the addresses of the accused persons were found to be fake. Their mobile connections were also obtained on fictitious IDs.

The police then laid a trap and lured Ravi with the help of a decoy customer. On his arrest, he confessed commiting the crime along with his associate Vinish. At his instance, Vinish was also arrested.

On sustained interrogation, both the accused told police they had worked with the Kotak Mahindra Bank and were familiar with the loopholes of the bank’s system.

“They hatched a conspiracy and stole bank’s precious data, and started calling potential customers from mobile numbers -- obtained from fictitious IDs -- to revive their policies,” Sharma added.

Once an appointment was fixed, they used to visit the customer and get cheques filled with the special pen. “The victims were asked to sign the cheques with their own pen. Later they filled different amount in the cheques by erasing the original amount filled by the magic pen,” Sharma said.

The police have also recovered ‘magic pens’, fake documents, bank account numbers, debit card, fake Kotak Mahindra Bank ID cards, SIM cards and mobile phones from the duo’s possession.